Russia diverts $712 million to aircraft buyer from rainy-day fund

Russia's finance ministry said on Thursday it had allocated another 70.5 billion roubles ($712 million) from its rainy day fund to a company buying aircraft from foreign lessors, a step that could lead to more deals involving stranded planes. Before last year's invasion of Ukraine, Russia was a major market for aircraft lessors, which bought jets from Boeing and Airbus and leased them to Russian airlines. Western sanctions then forced lessors to cancel hundreds of leases and Moscow refused to allow the planes to leave.