VEB offers Russia to produce regional jets

Russia should team up with Italy and France to produce modern regional aircrafts, Vladimir Dmitriyev, head of the country's national development bank VEB, said on Saturday. "The recent crash of Yak-42 has shown that Russia lacks of regional aviation," Dmitriyev said at an international forum. Yak-42 is the aircraft type that crashed outside Russia's Yaroslavl last week, killing 43 people including virtually the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional hockey team. As a chairman of the United Aircraft Corporation, Dmitriyev offered the UAC President Mikhail Pogosyan to consider cooperating with foreign partners to implement the program of regional aircraft production in Russia. Dmitriyev mentioned Italian-French ATR aircraft as a good example. "Unfortunately, we do not produce anything new in this area. Sukhoi Superjet is a brilliant machine, a stunning design of MS-21 medium-range aircraft. And that's all. We have no short-range aviation, regional aviation. Let's set ourselves the task of making this ambitious project of joint Russian-Italian-French production," he said.