A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, flight number RCH4555, which departed from Riga, landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday, according to information available on flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The aircraft departed Riga at around 8:50 a.m. and arrived in Moscow at approximately 10 a.m.
Two days earlier, on the 23rd of August, the aircraft operating flight RCH4555 arrived in Riga from Camp Springs, Maryland, United States. Joint Base Andrews is located there and is also home to the aircraft used by the US president as Air Force One.
The reason for the US military aircraft’s arrival in Moscow is not publicly known.
In recent months, Russian authorities have been expecting a visit from US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. They previously acted as intermediaries between Moscow and Kyiv during rounds of peace talks. The negotiation process is currently suspended.
In February last year, a US Air Force Gulfstream C-37B aircraft landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. It was later revealed that BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange founder Alexander Vinnik was on board. He returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States.
Vinnik was exchanged for teacher Marc Fogel, who had been sentenced to fourteen years in prison in Russia on drug smuggling charges.
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