The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, it carried half of all passengers flown by Aeroflot and its subsidiaries, remaining the standard domestic-route airliner of Russia and former Soviet states until the mid-2000s. It was exported to 17 non-Russian airlines and used as a head-of-state transport by the air forces of several countries.
From 20 to 23 September 1993, during the Sukhumi massacre, separatists in Sukhumi, Abkhazia blocked Georgian troops' overland supply routes as part of the war in Abkhazia. In response, the Georgian government used Sukhumi Babushara Airport to ferry supplies to troops stationed in Sukhumi. Abkhaz forces attacked the airport in an attempt to further block the supply routes.
The Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engined medium-range narrow-body jet airliner capable of carrying 210 passengers, designed by Tupolev and produced by Aviastar-SP and Kazan Aircraft Production Association. First introduced in 1989, it was intended to be broadly equivalent to the Boeing 757, with slightly lower range and payload, and had competitive performance and fuel efficiency in its class.
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 was a commercial flight shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Novosibirsk, Russia. The aircraft, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried 66 passengers and 12 crew members. Most of the passengers were Israelis visiting relatives in Russia. There were no survivors. The crash site is about 190 km west-southwest of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, 140 km north of the Turkish coastal town of Fatsa and 350 km south-southeast of Feodosiya in Crimea. The crash was caused by a missile launched during joint Ukrainian-Russian military air-defence exercises at the Russian-controlled training ground of the 31st Russian Black Sea Fleet Research center on Cape Opuk near the city of Kerch in Crimea. Ukraine eventually admitted that it might have caused the crash, probably by an errant S-200 missile fired by its armed forces. Ukraine paid $15 million to surviving family members of the 78 victims.
On the night of 24 August 2004, explosive devices were detonated on board two domestic passenger flights that had taken off from Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, causing the destruction of both aircraft and the loss of all 90 people on board them.
The Alexandrov Ensemble, commonly known as the Red Army Choir in the West, is an official army choir of the Russian armed forces. Founded during the Soviet era, the ensemble consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble.
Sochi International Airport is an international airport located in the Adler District of the resort city of Sochi, on the coast of the Black Sea in the federal subject of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Sochi International Airport is among the ten largest Russian airports, with an annual passenger turnover of 5.2 million.
Armavia Flight 967 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Armavia from Zvartnots International Airport, Zvartnots in Armenia to Sochi, a Black Sea coastal resort city in Russia. On 3 May 2006, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A320-200, crashed into the sea while attempting a go-around following its first approach to Sochi airport; all 113 aboard were killed. The accident was the first major commercial airline crash in 2006. It was Armavia's only fatal accident during the airline's existence.
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by Saint Petersburg-based airline Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise, flying from Anapa Airport to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg. The aircraft crashed in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, on 22 August 2006. All 170 people on board were killed.
The 2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on Victory Day on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Great Patriotic War ending in the defeat of Nazi Germany. This was the first time the Russian Federation opened its vehicle showcase since 1991, and the airshow since the Cold War. The parade was commanded by Army General Vladimir Bakin, Commander of the Moscow Military District, and reviewed by Anatoliy Serdyukov of the Russian Ministry of Defence. A speech was made by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who took office just two days prior. This would be notable to be the first ever major Russian military parade seen on television worldwide when RT carried a live broadcast of the parade for the first time in its history.
Vladivostok Air Flight 352 was a scheduled passenger flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia to Vladivostok via Irkutsk. On 4 July 2001, the aircraft operating the flight, a Tupolev Tu-154M with tail number RA-85845, lost control, stalled, and crashed while approaching Irkutsk Airport. All 136 passengers and 9 flight crew members aboard perished, making it the third deadliest aircraft crash over Russian territory to date after Aeroflot Flight 3352 and Aeroflot Flight 217.
On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife, Maria; the former president of Poland-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski; the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers; the president of the National Bank of Poland; Polish government officials; 18 members of the Polish parliament; senior members of the Polish clergy; and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre. The group was arriving from Warsaw to attend an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the massacre, which took place not far from Smolensk.
Alrosa Flight 514 was a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet on a domestic scheduled flight from Udachny to Moscow, Russia, that on 7 September 2010 made a successful emergency landing at a remote airstrip after suffering an in-flight total electrical failure. All 81 people on board escaped unharmed.
Dagestan Airlines Flight 372 was a scheduled commercial flight between Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and Makhachkala, Russia. On 4 December 2010, the Tupolev Tu-154 operating the flight skidded off the runway following an emergency landing at Domodedovo Airport, 45 kilometres south-east of Vnukovo. Two people on board were killed.
The 2013 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a parade held in Red Square on 9 May 2013 to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the capitulation of the Third Reich in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Great Patriotic War on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of May 9, 1945. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, delivered his tenth holiday address, and it was the first parade for both the Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoigu and Russian Ground Forces commander Col. Gen. Vladimir Chirkin, replacing Valery Gerasimov who has been promoted to Chief of the General Staff. The parade this year included the Suvorov Military School and the Nakhimov Naval School for the first time in four years, and the first appearance from a Cossack cadet corps unit, joining the more than 11,000 service personnel that marched on Red Square, and the return of the full air fly over after two years. The BTR82A IFV made its parade debut this year as part of the mobile column. Sevastopol in Ukraine, where the Black Sea Fleet is based, and 23 Russian cities will also hold parades on this day. As per tradition Kharkiv and Odesa in Ukraine also hold a full commemorative parade on this day as well.
The 2014 Moscow Victory Day Parade took place in Red Square on 9 May 2014 to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945, which formally ended hostilities in the Second World War in Europe. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Great Patriotic War on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of May 9, 1945. President of Russia Vladimir Putin delivered his eleventh holiday address to the nation on this day.
Valery Mikhaylovich Khalilov was an Uzbek-born Russian military band conductor and composer. A lieutenant general in the Russian military, he was the Senior Director of Music of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, most famously conducting the massed Russian military bands at the annual "Victory Day" parade held in the Moscow's Red Square a record 14 times. He died when the plane he was on, en route to Syria, crashed into the Black Sea off Sochi, Russia.
Anton Nikolayevich Gubankov was a Russian journalist and civil servant. He worked as a television journalist until 2013. He served as the Director of the Department of Culture in the Russian Ministry of Defence from 2013 to 2016. In this role Gubankov popularised the term "polite people" referring to the unmarked Russian soldiers during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. He died in the 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash when he was on his route to Syria with 63 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble with its director Valery Khalilov and 27 others which killed all 92 passengers on board, including Anton.
The 1974 EgyptAir Tupolev Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 July 1974, when an Egyptair Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft crashed during a training flight near Cairo International Airport. This resulted in the deaths of all six crew members on board.
