The Russian air traffic authority Rosaeronavigazia has accused 15 western airlines of committing air traffic offences within Russian airspace. It enumerated 18 instances where there had been altitude "busts" and five circumstances in which closed airspace had been penetrated. In a letter to the European Union aviation authority it was demanded that the mentioned airlines should be censured. If this wasn't done, then those airlines would be banned said Rosaeronavigazia boss Alexander Neradko. The incidents are claimed to have happened between 1 June 2006 and 17 February 2007 in the Moscow area. The Spanish airline Iberia was singled out for special mention. It was said to have twice re-entered prohibited airspace in the Moscow area and on another occasion one of its aberrant jets flew at 2700m instead of the 3700m allocated, leading to a near collision with a TU-154. British Airways and GermanWings were each allotted one violation for altitude deviation and course alteration due to weather.

The Russian newspaper Wedomosti cautioned against the threatened ban being seen as a quid pro quo against the nine Russian airlines presently being embargoed from flying in EU airspace. More factually, the EU has not banned nine Russian airlines. If you look at the Commission Regulation, which can be found here, you will see that there are no Russian airlines on this list of banned airlines. However, the recitals to the Regulation note that the Russian authorities have themselves imposed restrictions on operations to the EU by nine Russian airlines. Precursor banning by the airline's own state is being seen as an obliquely offered face-saving measure - but apparently the "slap" still stings.
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