Czech aircraft manufacturer Aircraft Industries and its Let L-410 twin-turboprop may have been spared the impact of crippling international sanctions against Russia, but it is now isolated from its largest market. After 13 years of Russian ownership, the 86-year-old company passed back into Czech hands on April 21 and is now owned by OMPO Holding, part of Czech defense group Omnipol. The group also has a share in Czech jet trainer builder Aero Vodochody. For over a decade, Aircraft Industries-often known as Let Kunovice-had been linked with Russian group Ural Mining Metallurgical Co. (UGMK). But Omnipol has confirmed to Czech media that it negotiated the company's sale with Russia's Ostov group, owned by UGMK shareholder Andrei Kozitsyn. While neither Ostov nor Kozitsyn has been subject to individual sanctions, the various international embargoes and financial transaction blocks imposed on Russia in response to its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine left the future of the Kunovice-based manufacturer looking bleak.
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