Putin’s Doomsday Plane circling near Finland for third day in a row as he visits his spiritual mentor

Published on: April 27, 2014 at 12:58 PM

A Russian Tu-214R Special Mission Aircraft has been operating quite close to Finland’s airspace for the last days.

A Tupolev Tu-214SR, used as a communication relay aircraft often dispatched by the Russian Air Force to accompany Putin’s presidential aircraft or other Moscow’s VIPs on their trips, has departed from St. Petersburg and it is currently circling near the border with Finland.

The orbit RSD49 (the radio callsign of the aircraft) is flying, centered on the island of Valaam, the largest in Lake Ladoga, where Putin is visiting his “spiritual mentor”, brings the Tu-214 as close as 20 km from the Finnish border.

The Tu-214R is a Russian version of the U.S. E-4B, an airborne command and control role, that was deployed over Sochi during the Winter Games opening, and also flew over Crimea, always visible on Flightradar24.com by means of ADS-B transponder.

In other words, while NOTAMs can expose the position of the Admiral Kutsnezov aircraft carrier, Mode-S transponder on Russia’s “doomsday” plane will most probably tell you where Putin is.

Screenshot via Flightradar24. H/T to @Missilito for the link to the Guberniya Daily.

 

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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