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RUSSIA'S ECONOMY

Aeroflot resumes financing of VIM-Airlines

Russia’s tenth largest carrier announced on September 25 that it was stopping all charter flight operations due to financial problems

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot has resumed financing of VIM-Airlines (also known as VIM Avia), a spokesman with the company told TASS.

"Aeroflot is resuming financing VIM-Avia due to the fact that the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko signed all necessary documents at 12:09 Moscow time," the spokesman with Aeroflot said.

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Investigators charge VIM Airlines CEO with fraud

Earlier, a source in Aeroflot said that the airline suspended any financing of VIM-Avia in connection with the "refusal of the head of the agency to sign and verify the payments."

Russia’s tenth largest carrier announced on September 25 that it was stopping all charter flight operations due to financial problems and shortage of the working capital. The announcement was preceded by a series of flight delays in Russian and foreign airports.

The air carrier obliged to transport more than 200,000 passengers before the end of this year.

The Federal Air Transport Agency has initiated an unscheduled inspection of VIM Airlines. According to the agency, substantial flight delays were linked to the company’s debts to fueling companies. The agency says that the VIM Airlines debt arrears had amounted to seven billion rubles ($121.638mln).

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into a suspected large-scale embezzlement by some of the company’s officials.

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