Does it have anything to do with the plans of Defensive Shield in former european comunist countries?. Or simply interest in participating in the EADS shareholderships?. Anyway, good news indeed. EADS was needing it.

Well, Putin is trying to fill in all those gaps the current global anti-US mood opens all over the world, EU-land a rewarding price in that game. (And he knows he better do it fast before the Chinese do it!). That propaganda campaign about NMD is just one vehicle of many.

And of course Russian money is seeking a way to establish itself outside of CIS, even though Putin wants them to build new industries within Russia instead. But that wont really happen. Of course the Moscou Kremlin (via some commercial proxy) would love to have 25%+1 in EADS. So far Merkel & Cie trying to block that – but only till Russia becomes WTO member, then Russian money is in EU-land big time.

It’s kinda cold war all over again, this time more commercially than militarily (of course Cold War 1 was also about economics), plus it’s more a triangle or triangle-plus since the Chinese are also in, and Gulf Arabs and soon Indians and perhaps even Brazilians in the longer run. EU-land is a geo-strategic vacuum, a reluctant still-US dominated weather vane, secretly waiting/hoping to be bagged by the next world power, since it’s incapable of developing any meaningful geo-strategic orientation from within itself.

Of course the pro-A350 move is politics. Not that is really matters for Aeroflot if its ops cost a little more or less …