goodo -- Thanks for the details. The experience your brother endured sounds ugly and inexcusable indeed.

Here are some observations that may be helpful to assess what has happened.

First, it is unlikely that the person extorting a bribe from your brother was an Aeroflot employee. Somehow people tend to believe that everyone working at an airport in Russia is an Aeroflot employee. That's not the case anymore (see explanation below on Donavia airlines that actually serves Rostov). While the behavior of that person was disgusting and absolutely inexcusable (and, BTW, there is no KGB anymore - it's now called FSB ), it's hard to claim that Aeroflot is responsible for it (since there is no proof that he/she was an Aeroflot employee).

In terms of the luggage weight limits, I'm wondering if your brother had a "through ticket" all the way from ROV ro JFK. If yes, then he indeed was entitled to the least restrictive luggage rules, i.e. 2 pieces 70 lbs each.

As a slight digression - I was very recently booking (through BA) a combined AA/BA ticket from the US to Africa (AA transatlantic, and BA the rest of the way), and was very surprised to see on the itinerary printout (on BA's web site) that even on a "through ticket", my luggage limits on BA segments were shown as 23 kg total. BA CSR suggested it was a typo, but still - who knows what would be the position of BA folks in Africa at check-in.

If your brother had two separate tickets, one for over the water, and another for Russian domestic travel, then his Russian domestic segments were subject to 20 kg limit.

In terms of "two Aeroflots" story, here's the deal. There is one and only "Aeroflot - Russian Airlines", which has a code SU and operates not only international, but also some domestic routes in Russia. Flights from Moscow to Rostov are operated by a different carrier - Donavia, code D9. I think (don't quote me on this though) that at least some of SVO - ROV flights are code-sharing between D9 and SU.

So, here's the bottom line for your brother. His chances to get any compensation from Aeroflot in NY depend on whether his ticket on the ROV-SVO portion was SU-coded, and whether it was a part of a "through ticket" ROV-SVO-JFK. He also better have receipts for all the payments he made in Rostov. Even then, getting anything out of Aeroflot (and to be fair, out of many foreign airlines) is like pulling teeth. If the amount in question is not very significant, it's not worth the aggravation. Hopefully, next time your brother would choose to fly a different carrier. Competition is the only way to change their behavior.