-Russian Airlines PJSC spent billions of dollars over two decades transforming itself from a stodgy, Soviet-era carrier, with bland food and uncomfortable seats, into an award-winning airline flying new jets around the world.
In two weeks, all that progress threatens to come undone—providing an example of how one of Russia’s best-known and most internationally connected companies has been threatened by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the West’s response.
The European Union has closed off airspace to Aeroflot and other Russian international carriers, and on Wednesday added the company’s chief executive,
Mikhail Poluboyarinov,
to its list of sanctioned individuals. Other sanctions imposed by the West on Russia have set off an effort by companies that lease jetliners to…