2019 Aeroflot crash in Moscow that killed 41

The European Commission announced yesterday 11 April 2022 an update to its Air Safety List which added 20 Russian airlines (for a total of 21, including Aeroflot) to the list of airlines that are subject to an operating ban within the EU because they do not meet international safety standards.

Quoting from the European Commission media release:

“The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid Certificate of Airworthiness. The Russian airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards. This is not only a clear breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), but it also poses an immediate safety threat. We are living in the context of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. However, I want to make it crystal-clear that this decision is not another sanction against Russia; it has been taken solely on the basis of technical and safety grounds. We do not mix safety with politics.”

Following the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has passed a law permitting the country's airlines to place the 500+ aircraft currently leased from foreign companies on Russia's aircraft registry, and operate them without valid certificates of airworthiness, inviolation of international safety standards.