2 years ago
A mysterious Russian plane that captivated Twitter watchers as it flew across the Atlantic ocean this morning has arrived in the United States to pick up 13 expelled Russian diplomats, according to flight tracking information and the State Department.
The plane, an Ilyushin Il-96, left Moscow en route to St. Petersburg on Friday night and arrived at Dulles airport outside Washington at 2:10 p.m. eastern time on Saturday. It is unclear what time it will depart back to Russia.
The same plane appears to have been used to fly Russian officials from Moscow to Belarus for the first two rounds of peace negotiations with Ukraine.
President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union on Tuesday that American airspace was closed to Russian planes, but the U.S. government is making an exception so the expelled Russians can go home.
Biden administration officials pointed to Russian Foreign Ministry comments in which their spokesperson said a plane was sent to pick up the “diplomats.”
“The U.S. government approved a flight chartered by the Russian government to facilitate the departure of Russian UN Mission personnel who were expelled for abuse of their privileges of residence,” said a State Department spokesperson in a statement to POLITICO. “This special exception was done in accordance with federal regulations to ensure Russian mission personnel and their families departed by the date we had instructed.”
On Feb. 28, the U.S. mission to the United Nations announced it was expelling the diplomats, which it accused of spying on the United States.
“We are beginning the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,” the mission said at the time in a statement, noting the move had been in development for “several months.”
The U.S. is also expelling another Russian who was a staffer at the U.N. but not based at the Russian mission, even though Russian officials said that his assignment was scheduled to end in mid-March.
Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, told reporters earlier this week that the diplomats had to leave the U.S. by Monday.
Ambassador Richard Mills, the deputy representative of the U.S. mission to the U.N., said that the Russian officials had engaged in “activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats,” leading Nebenzya to respond by saying his reasons for kicking the officials out were “not satisfactory.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry hasn’t announced their response to the expulsions but said on Wednesday that they might expel some American diplomats as part of a “tit for tat.” The Russian government expelled the number two American diplomat in Russia a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile in Moscow, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan is staying at his post, where he continues to work and engage with Russian officials and American citizens.
Sullivan is due to hold a virtual town hall on Wednesday to answer questions from Americans in Russia. Last week, a top Russian Foreign Ministry official complained to the U.S. ambassador about what the government called "hostile" protests outside Russia’s diplomatic facilities against the country’s invasion of Ukraine and ominously urged the U.S. to make sure its diplomats weren't harmed.
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