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Two Swiss fighters escorted Russian liner carrying official delegates to Marseille

On board the Ilyushin-96 liner there were members of the Russian delegation going to France for talks between Russian Putin and Macron

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

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MARSELLE, August 19. /TASS/. Two fighters from Switzerland’s Air Force escorted a plane belonging to the Rossiya Airlines special air carrier en route from Moscow to Marseille for several minutes. On board the Ilyushin-96 liner, were members of the Russian delegation going to France for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron, including Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, along with a group of journalists.

When the plane entered Switzerland’s airspace, two fighters approached it, one on each side at an altitude of 10.6 kilometers. The fighters took turns to flying close to the airliner, at certain moments hovering just several meters away from the liner’s wings and escorted it across Swiss airspace for some time to the border with France, where they turned away.

Swiss Air Force jets have approached and escorted Rossiya Airlines aircraft many times in the past.

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