Aeroflot

And I got all this money in my, in my bag.

And I'm like, "No, no." So then I go into Aeroflot, which is like-

Oh, God

... their American Airlines.

Check in." Kinda like that.

The cabbie pushes me out of the way and starts to yell at him in Russian.

And I'm like, "What'd he say?" The guy from Aeroflot goes, "I don't speak English."

[laughs]

Only three months later, they're like, "How hard would it be for us to switch back to Lotus 1-2-3?" So I don't know.

Research, evaluate, take your time, and decide, is it really worth it? I mean, is saving $25 worth jumping on Aeroflot instead of Olympic Airlines? Maybe.

But, I mean, you know, you could run LibreOffice and Nextcloud Hub and beat the big corporate guys at their own game, but then you don't get all that wonderful free merch.

But I mean, hey, if you need a trainer, if you need a trainer for New Ed, when you decide to get off the Microsoft Word teat, let me know.

This is a direct violation of the export restrictions the U.S. dramatically tightened after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, restrictions that specifically cut off Russian carriers from accessing U.S. origin maintenance parts, repair components, and spares for their Boeing and Airbus fleets without special government authorization.

On top of the broader restrictions, the Commerce Department separately issued a temporary denial order specifically barring Aeroflot from receiving any U.S. origin goods whatsoever, which makes this case a particularly clear-cut violation on paper.

Mamunov was found guilty of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, illegally exporting items subject to that law, conspiracy to commit smuggling, actually smuggling goods, submitting false or misleading export information, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, 12 counts in total.

The U.S. attorney overseeing the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reutting-Quinones, made a pointed statement after that verdict, essentially saying that Russia can't evade American sanctions by routing purchases through South Florida, and that faking a destination on a shipping label doesn't make the U.S. export law disappear.

It's also worth zooming out here because this case is far from an isolated incident.

There was a very similar prosecution back in February of 2025 involving employees of a company called FlightTime Enterprises, who were accused of illegally exporting around $2 million worth of aircraft parts through a comparable evasion scheme.

And going back even further, Aeroflot has something of a history with US smuggling investigations more broadly.

Back in 2020, American authorities charged 10 Russian nationals, several of them current or former Aeroflot crew members, with running a scheme that smuggled roughly $50 million worth of mostly stolen Apple products back to Russia using airline crew as carriers.