Inside Putin’s £390m Flying Kremlin jet with gold-plated TOILET as sanction-hit Russians fight over food in empty shops
DETAILS about Vladimir Putin’s luxury “Flying Kremlin” jet worth £390million have surfaced – and it has a gold-plated toilet. Revealing pictures show the plane’s lavish interior as news comes of hungry Russians fighting over food with the ruble crumbling while economic sanctions start to bite. Among the luxurious trappings on board the official Ilyushin plane are a fully-stocked […]
DETAILS about Vladimir Putin’s luxury “Flying Kremlin” jet worth £390million have surfaced – and it has a gold-plated toilet.
Revealing pictures show the plane’s lavish interior as news comes of hungry Russians fighting over food with the ruble crumbling while economic sanctions start to bite.
Among the luxurious trappings on board the official Ilyushin plane are a fully-stocked bar, bedrooms and a gym.
The interior decor has a neoclassical style and the huge conference table is gold trimmed and surrounded by cream leather seats.
Putin is reported to have clocked up more air miles in high office than all other Russian leaders put together.
His amazing jet is capable of hitting speeds of up to 560mph and was made by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association.
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It is equipped with advanced communication system that allows it to act as a management centre capable of commanding of troops during combat.
Russia’s currency, has gone into freefall and ordinary Russians have been seen at cashpoints desperately trying to withdraw cash before their savings become worthless.
Footage has also emerged of Russian pensioners fighting over what little food is available on supermarket shelves.
Liubov Tsybulska, an advisor to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted a clip on Twitter, saying: “People in Moscow fighting for…SUGAR.
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“Well, dear Russian citizens, this is only beginning.”
Anna, who filmed the footage in a store in Perekryostok, told Podyom Media people had become aggressive due to the shortages of basic foodstuffs.
“There were empty shelves – no salt, no sugar, no pasta, no buckwheat, and only expensive rice,” she said.
“People suddenly saw a cart with sugar and ran towards it. They attacked this cart, pushing each other away aggressively.
“They were grabbing as much as possible for themselves, not leaving sugar for the others. I wanted to share the horror of it. We must stay human.”
“There are no conditions for risks of a shortage or for a reduction in product range”, claimed deputy prime minister Viktoria Abramchenko.
“It is not worth driving up artificial demand with purchases for the future.
“We will reorient the market and establish mutually profitable trade, expand our partnership network with friendly countries.”
Jeffrey Halley, a senior analyst at OANDA, told Reuters at the end of February: “A bank run has already started in Russia over the weekend… and inflation will immediately spike massively, and the Russian banking system is likely to be in trouble.”
Fears over an economic collapse in Russia continue to grow as Western sanctions begin to bite, threatening to wipe out the ruble’s buying power and destroy the savings of ordinary Russians.
It comes as…
- 100s are feared trapped under rubble after Russia shelled a theatre being used as a bomb shelter by 1,200 civilians in Mariupol
- Ukraine’s President Zelensky has described the Russian invasion as his country’s ‘9/11’ in an address to US Congress
- 53 people were killed in Chernihiv on Wednesday in the deadliest day of the war so far
- President Putin’s elite paratroopers have been wiped out on the battlefield, in a further sign Russia’s military is crumbling
- Drone footage captures the dramatic moment a Russian tank was hunted down and blown to bits in a Ukrainian strike in Mariupol
- A Brit mum drunkenly ordered a £4,500 taxi to Ukraine on a night out to ‘try and help’ – thankfully the payment was declined
During the first days of the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian ruble lost roughly half of its value, going from 84 rubles per dollar before the invasion to as high as 154 rubles per dollar by March 7.
Since then it has regained some ground rising to 96.5 rubles per dollar on Tuesday.
Russia’s central bank hiked interest rates from 9.5 per cent to over 20 per cent in a bid to stop a run on the country’s currency, the ruble.
The Bank of Russia blamed a “drastic change” on the “external conditions for the economy” for the sudden spike.
And the country’s top economists and finance ministry have ordered exporting companies to sell off 80 percent of their foreign currency reserves.
Hit by sanctions, Russia and its economy have absorbed a huge blow.
The ruble has plummeted in value, and Russian oil is selling at a big discount on world markets.
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Russia is believed to be spending as much as £15billion a day to fund the invasion of Ukraine, experts believe.
The European Central Bank also warned that the European subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Sberbank – one currently under UK sanctions – was facing bankruptcy.
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