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Putin’s Alaska Flight Has a History—and It Involves Hundreds of Kilos of Cocaine
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
A Russian government jet with a scandal in its past departed Moscow for Alaska on Thursday morning, ahead of Friday’s high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, according to Russian media, The Moscow Times on August 14.
The Moscow Times, citing flight-tracking service Flightradar24, stated that the Ilyushin Il-96—tail number RA-96023—took off from Vnukovo Airport at about 8 a.m. local time and is expected to arrive in Anchorage, Alaska, a few hours later.
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Russian state news agency TASS reported the plane may be carrying an advance team, along with senior members of the Russian delegation.
RA-96023 isn’t just any Kremlin aircraft. Seven years ago, it became infamous after Argentine authorities seized nearly 400 kilograms of cocaine from a Russian diplomatic compound in Buenos Aires—narcotics that local gendarmes later suggested had been flown in aboard that very jet.
In 2021, a Moscow court jury found four men guilty in connection with what became known as the “cocaine case”: Ali Abyanov, Vladimir Kalmykov, Andrei Kovalchuk, and Ishtimir Khudzhamov.
Prosecutors alleged that in 2016, businessman Andrei Kovalchuk bought the drugs in Argentina, packed them into suitcases, and hid them in a storeroom at the Russian embassy’s school.
Abyanov, the embassy’s property manager at the time, allegedly wrapped the bags in special paper and sealed them with wax stamps—mimicking the treatment of diplomatic mail.
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When Abyanov’s contract ended and he returned to Moscow, his replacement discovered the suspicious cargo. The embassy’s security service opened the suitcases and found the cocaine.
Argentine police seized and destroyed the drugs, replacing them with bags of flour. The decoy luggage was then sealed and shipped to Moscow.
On December 12, 2017, Abyanov, along with Kalmykov and Khudzhamov, was arrested in Moscow while trying to collect the shipment. Kovalchuk was detained in Germany and extradited to Russia.
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All four denied wrongdoing, claiming they were conducting legitimate business and that the bags originally contained coffee, cigars, and semi-precious stones. They insisted they had no idea how cocaine ended up inside.
Earlier, Russia finalized the lineup of its delegation for the upcoming negotiations in Alaska, which will include Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and the President’s Special Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev.
