Bottom line
An Ilyushin Il-96-300 belonging to the Russian government is currently flying from Moscow to New York. As you’d expect, the routing is far from direct, as the flight has avoided the airspace of the European Union and Canada.
While there hasn’t been any official announcement, it seems pretty clear that this aircraft is coming to pick up Russian diplomats who have to leave the country, and maybe even drop some off. Russia last operated one of these flights almost a year ago to the date.
A nothing article and the route it took.
