Excerpt from The American Conservative article

July 21, 2022

Dimitri Simes Jr., who writes for The American Conservative, in his article “Are Sanctions Hurting Russia?” analyzed the economic situation in Russia over the past three months and interviewed experts and businessmen. Alexey Butrimov, CEO of BJet, gave his opinion on the Russian aviation development:

“Sanctions against Russia are a blessing in disguise. On the one hand, we look at all the problems caused by sanctions with sadness, but we also understand deep down inside that we can finally resurrect our aviation.

Now that we find ourselves in a situation where we have nothing to lose, the only path forward is to build up our own aviation system. Russia still has factories for the production of military airplanes, and in the current situation all we have to do is to expand the production of military aircraft to the civilian sector.

We are seeing the emergence of new small companies that produce key components, and the government is trying to promote the manufacturing of Russian equipment. So, on the one hand, we have problems, but, on the other hand, these problems have finally kicked off the process of import substitution, as a result of which Russia will no longer depend on everyone else.”