To begin with, it wasn't operated by Aeroflot. You know, Russia hasn't really taken off after the shock therapy transition to capitalism. So why did that kind of transition happen in the first place?

(From The Times Online)
"The views of the shock therapists — strongly advocated by the US Treasury and the IMF — prevailed in most of the countries. The gradualists, however, believed that the transition to a market economy would be better managed by moving at a reasonable speed, in good order. Ten years later, the wisdom of the gradualist approach is at last being recognised: the tortoises have overtaken the hares. The gradualist critics of shock therapy not only accurately predicted its failures but also outlined the reasons why it would not work. Their only failure was to underestimate the magnitude of the disaster. "


Have you flown OK, MA or LO recently? Their home countries went for the gradualist approach.


Incidentally the chief advocate of "shock therapy" (an American economist whose name escapes me) made quite an impressive fortune offering his services to transitional Russia; I assume there was no money-back guarantee!


Edited to add: Sorry for OMNI-sing the thread but I do think SU is a decent airline and are doing remarkably better than other carriers subsidised by their home governments.
I do think the USA had a negative influence in the way Russia approached its return to capitalism.

ETA 2: That economist's name is Jeffrey Sachs.