NATO has confirmed the withdrawal of a Volga-Dnepr subsidiary from its contract for Strategic Air Lift International Solution (SALIS), which provides An-124 freighter uplift for the western military alliance.
A spokesperson for the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) told Air Cargo News: “Since 2006 the NSPA has contracted for airlift to assist an international consortium of nations in meeting their requirements for outsize cargo airlift.
“These services have been operating for more than a decade and currently two separate contracts are in force to support the Support Partnership nations under what is known as the Strategic Air Lift International Solution or SALIS.
“The SALIS is an international consortium which includes 10 nations: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.”
The NSPA spokesperson continued: “The current contracts were signed on 1 January 2017 – one with Antonov SALIS GmbH and a second one with Ruslan SALIS GmbH. These contracts are in force until the end of 2018.
“NSPA has been informed by Ruslan SALIS that they will not continue their service beyond the terms of their current contract which will remain in force until the end of 2018.”
“NSPA is currently working with the SALIS nations to explore options to meet their future airlift requirement from January 2019 onward.”
NSPA is unable to provide additional information at this time.
Two An124-100 aircraft, one each from the two freighter airlines, have been stationed permanently at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle airport since March 2006 as part of the SALIS Project.
More aircraft are also made available at short notice, when required, to provide airlift for EU and NATO countries.
Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Group said in a statement: “In line with our corporate strategy, Volga-Dnepr Group is focused on the growth of its business in the civil commercial sector and continuing to extend the scope of its niche products.
“We have been gradually withdrawing from the military logistics transportation market in due compliance with our previous commitments.
“The Group will not participate in the tender process initiated by NATO in its existing configuration, but we are open to continued cooperation with all organizations engaged in the transportation of humanitarian cargoes, and for future participation in disaster and emergency recovery programs.”

During their annual spring meeting in Brussels in June 2003, NATO Ministers of Defence signed letters of intent on strategic air- and sealift. Eleven nations signed the letter of intent on airlift: Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Turkey. At the June 2004 Istanbul Summit, Defence Ministers of 15 countries signed a memorandum of understanding to achieve an operational airlift capacity for outsize cargo by 2005, using up to six Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft. In addition, the Defence Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania signed a letter of intent to join the consortium.
In January 2006, the 15 countries signed a contract with Ruslan SALIS GmbH, a subsidiary of the Russian company Volga Dnepr, based in Leipzig.
In March 2006, the 15 original signatories were joined by Sweden at a special ceremony in Leipzig to mark the entry into force of the multinational contract. The contract’s initial duration was for three years but this has now been extended until the end of 2014. Finland and Poland have also now joined the SALIS programme. The SALIS contract was re-competed in 2012 and Ruslan SALIS GmbH was rewarded a new two-year contract (2013/2014) with options to extend until December 2017.
Volga-Dnepr and Ukraine’s ADB provide the SALIS aircraft and also provide AN-124-100 aircraft to support the Afghanistan mission, with weekly sorties from Europe to Afghanistan and back, under contractual arrangements with NATO Support Agency (NSPA).
The capabilities of SALIS will play a big role in on-going Afghanistan re-deployment.

British investigators now say a third Russian military intelligence officer was involved in the poisoning in March this year of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English cathedral town of Salisbury.
Officials say the officer, who they suspect of carrying out reconnaissance for the nerve agent attack, has been identified by the British security services. At this stage, they say, they are not releasing his name – neither the alias he might have used nor his real identity.
The disclosure comes as Kremlin officials downplayed the unmasking earlier this week of one of the suspects in the attack as a decorated colonel in the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service.
Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, a GRU veteran who is believed to have served in an elite special forces unit in Afghanistan as well as in Chechnya and Ukraine, received Russia’s top military honor, Hero of the Russian Federation, in 2014. It may have been bestowed on him personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin, say security analysts.
Chepiga was seen laughing on CCTV footage released earlier this year by the British authorities as he and a colleague, who used the alias Alexander Petrov, sauntered along a Salisbury street March 4 soon after the poisoning of Skripal, a former Russian agent who defected to Britain.

The two men have claimed they are sport nutritionists and in an interview, ridiculed by the British media and government, with the Kremlin-directed RT network, insisted they had gone to Salisbury, twice, to see the cathedral’s spire and ancient clock. Their first day trip was a failure because of slush and snow, they said, although according to weather data there was no snow in the cathedral town on March 3.
The investigative journalism consortium Bellingcat, along with the news-site The Insider, say they have identified the decorated veteran, who used the alias Ruslan Boshirov, by trawling through open-source records of the graduates of Russian military academies and then matching his photograph. Leaked data of Chepiga’s real passport provided final proof.
‘Fake news’
The Russian Foreign Ministry says the Bellingcat identification is “fake news.”
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday: “Like you, we are just learning of this investigation in the media released that talks about certain people resembling certain other people.” Other Kremlin officials say many people resemble each other.
Chepiga’s apparent identification as one of the likely culprits of the assassination attempt using the rare toxin Novichok leaves in tatters the Kremlin claim that it had no involvement in the attack, say British officials. His seniority in the GRU, they argue, suggests the attack was sanctioned from the top of the Kremlin.
Bellingcat says aside from its own open-source probe, “multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have confirmed the suspect’s identity.” British officials say they have no dispute with the identification. But they are not officially confirming it and have not said in detail why, arguing they are unable to for security reasons.

Locals in Chepiga’s home village, Berezovka, 640 kilometers east of Moscow in the Amur region, interviewed by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, confirm the identification and say they knew it was him even before the Bellingcat investigation. They say they recognized him from the CCTV footage British authorities released. Kommersant says the locals spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.
“Yeah, that’s Tolya,” one woman told the newspaper, using Chepiga’s nickname. She says he was a disciplined youth. “He didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and never got involved with any bad crowd,” she said.
Security analysts say it is possible that Chepiga and Skripal, a former GRU officer, knew each other. If so, it would add a personal element to the nerve agent attack. Skripal also served in Afghanistan, although not in a special forces unit but with Soviet Airborne Troops and many years earlier.
Skripal and his daughter survived the March nerve-agent attack, but a local woman not connected to the original attack died in July after being exposed to the same toxin, which was contained in a discarded perfume bottle dumped in a trash bin.
Skripal was a double agent for British intelligence in the 1990s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russian authorities, tried, convicted of high treason and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was included in a 2010 spy swap and settled in Salisbury.
Britain, the United States and most European Union countries responded to the Salisbury attack with expulsions of Russian diplomats and financial sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement in the attack and has maintained variously that the poisoning never happened, that it was carried out by Britain in order to blame Russia or that unknown third parties were responsible.

A third Russian accomplice alleged to have helped plan the Salisbury nerve agent attack is believed to have been identified by police.
The man, from Russia’s military intelligence service the GRU, is reported to have visited Salisbury ahead of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The paper said the suspect was likely to have fed back details including the layout of the cul-de-sac where Mr Skripal lived and which door he used to enter and leave.
The Press Association has confirmed that the investigation is looking at several suspects, with a senior Government source stating that there are “at least two”. An exact number has not been confirmed but the source said there were “multiple suspects” being investigated.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “We will not be discussing any further details in what remains a live investigation.”
UK authorities believe two Russians, using the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, smeared the highly toxic Novichok chemical on a door handle at the Wiltshire home of former GRU officer Mr Skripal on March 4.
The attack left Mr Skripal and his daughter critically ill, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was later exposed to the same nerve agent, died in July.
On Wednesday, the investigative group Bellingcat identified one of the suspects as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga – a highly decorated GRU officer.
Bellingcat said it had identified Chepiga, who travelled to the UK with a passport issued in the assumed name of Ruslan Boshirov, by trawling through online records from Russian military academies.
Chepiga’s former commanding officer Alexander Borzhko confirmed that Chepiga fought in Chechnya and received the Hero of Russia medal.
But President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could find no information about such a person receiving the award.
The Government has declined to comment officially on the report, although it has previously said the two suspects wanted for the attack on the Skripals were GRU officers.
Bellingcat is reportedly close to identifying the second suspect.
The Kremlin says it expects Britain to say what it knows about the identity of the two suspects so that Russian officials can launch an investigation.
Mr Peskov said that the allegations made by the British-based investigative group cannot serve as a basis for such an inquiry.
“We can’t have media as our vis-a-vis in such a sensitive case,” he said.
“Such materials should only come from competent sources. From the very start, Russia has offered to conduct a joint investigation, but faced British refusals.”
Meanwhile, the Government dismissed allegations that Russian security services infiltrated the British Embassy in Moscow to obtain visas for the suspected poisoners.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We reject these claims entirely.
“Applications of this type would be decided by a visa officer in the UK and not in the British Embassy in Moscow.”

2010 – Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer jailed for spying for Britain, is released and flown to the UK as part of a swap with Russian agents caught in the United States. He settles in Salisbury.
March 3, 2018 – Yulia Skripal arrives at Heathrow Airport from Russia to visit her father in England.
March 4, 9.15am – Sergei Skripal’s burgundy BMW is seen in suburban Salisbury, near a cemetery, where his wife and son are commemorated.
March 4, 1.30pm – The BMW is seen driving toward central Salisbury.
March 4, 1.40pm – The BMW is parked at a lot in central Salisbury.

March 4, afternoon – Sergei and Yulia Skripal visit the Bishops Mill pub.
March 4, 2.20pm to 3.35pm – Sergei and Yulia Skripal have lunch at the Zizzi restaurant.
March 4, 4.15pm – Emergency services are called by a passer-by concerned about a man and a woman in Salisbury city centre.
Officers find the Skripals unconscious on a bench. They are taken to Salisbury District Hospital, where they remain in critical condition.
March 5, morning – Police say two people in Salisbury are being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance.

March 5, afternoon – Wiltshire Police, along with Public Health England, declare a ‘major incident’
March 7 – Police announce that the Skripals were likely poisoned with a nerve agent in a targeted murder attempt.
They disclose that a police officer who responded to the incident is in serious condition in a hospital.
March 8 – Home Secretary Amber Rudd describes the use of a nerve agent on UK soil was a ‘brazen and reckless act’ of attempted murder
March 9 – About 180 troops trained in chemical warfare and decontamination are deployed to Salisbury to help with the police investigation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow might be willing to assist with the investigation but expresses resentment at suggestions the Kremlin was behind the attack.
March 11 – Public health officials tell people who visited the Zizzi restaurant or Bishops Mill pub in Salisbury on the day of the attack or the next day to wash their clothes as a precaution.
March 12, morning- Prime Minister Theresa May tells the House of Commons that the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
March 12, afternoon – Public Health England ask everyone who visited Salisbury town centre on the day of the attack to wash all of their clothes and belongings.

March 14 – The PM announces the expulsion of 23 suspected Russian spies from the country’s UK Embassy.
March 22 – Nick Bailey, the police officer injured in the attack, is released from hospital.
March 26 – The United States and 22 other countries join Britain in expelling scores of Russian spies from capitals across the globe.
March 29 – Doctors say Yulia Skripal is ‘improving rapidly’ in hospital.
‘Unknown time in the spring’  – Dutch authorities expelled two suspected Russian spies who tried to hack into a Swiss laboratory
April 3 – The chief of the Porton Down defence laboratory said it could not verify the ‘precise source’ of the nerve agent.
April 5, morning – Yulia Skripal’s cousin Viktoria says she has received a call from Yulia saying she plans to leave hospital soon.

April 5, afternoon – A statement on behalf of Yulia is released by Metropolitan Police, in which she says her strength is ‘growing daily’ and that ‘daddy is fine’.
April 9 – Ms Skripal is released from hospital and moved to a secure location.
May 18 – Sergei Skripal is released from hospital 11 weeks after he was poisoned.
June 30 – Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fall ill at a property in Amesbury, which is eight miles from Salisbury, and are rushed to hospital.
July 4 – Police declare a major incident after Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley are exposed to an ‘unknown substance’, later revealed to be Novichok.
July 5 – Sajid Javid demands an explanation over the two poisonings as he accuses the Russian state of using Britain as a ‘dumping ground for poison’.
July 8 – Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, dies in hospital due to coming into contact with Novichok.
July 10 – Mr Rowley regains consciousness at hospital, and later tells his brother that Dawn had sprayed the Novichok onto her wrists.
July 19 – Police are believed to have identified the perpetrators of the attack.
August 20 –  Charlie Rowley is rushed to hospital as he starts to lose his site, but doctors can’t confirm whether it has anything to do with the poisoning.
August 26 – Charlie Rowley admitted to intensive care unit with meningitis
August 28  – Police call in the ‘super recognisers’  in bid to track down the poisoners
September 4 –  Charlie Rowley’s brother says he has ‘lost all hope’ and doesn’t have long to live.
Independent investigators, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, confirm the toxic chemical that killed Ms Sturgess was the same nerve agent as that which poisoned the Skripals.
September 5 – Scotland Yard and CPS announce enough evidence to charge Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for conspiracy to murder over Salisbury nerve agent attack.
September 13 – Britain’s most wanted men speak to RT and claim to be humble tourists
September 26 – The real identity of one of the two assassins, named by police as Ruslan Boshirov, is reported to be Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.

A third suspect has been identified in the Novichok poisonings of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, according to reports.
Investigators believe another Russian military intelligence officer visited the city on a reconnaissance mission prior to the attack in March, the Telegraph reported.

The spotter would have travelled alone to assess the location before Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov brought toxic nerve agent Novichok into the UK in a perfume bottle.
They are suspected of poisoning Russian defector Skripal and his daughter Yulia by smearing Novichok on his front door before heading back to Moscow.

The Skripals both survived, but local woman Dawn Sturgess died after her partner Charlie Rowley found the perfume bottle used to dispense the poison.
It is believed that security chiefs have identified the new suspect who came to Salisbury to scope out the intended target.
Skripal suspect ‘true identity’ revealed as decorated Russian colonel
Philip Ingram, a former intelligence and security officer, told The Telegraph: “There was almost certainly intelligence on the ground before the attack was carried out, it is what is called a pattern of life study.
“They wouldn’t have turned up at the house and put it on the door handle on a whim.”
It follows reports that security services are investigating four other suspects believed to be linked to the attack – and analysis from a former Russian spy who said kill teams would tend to operate in teams of six.

Ex-spy Boris Karpichkov, 59, told the Mirror that eavesdroppers from Russian spy agency the FSB would have monitored Yulia Skripal’s mobile, email, internet and Skype before she travelled to the UK to meet her father.
The team would have formed a  “Special Operations Group”, or SOG, and cloned the passports of prisoners in other EU states to travel without visas – and some members may still be laying low following the attack.
Suspect Ruslan Boshirov has recently been identified by the investigative journalism bureau Bellingcat as a decorated GRU Colonel, Anatoliy Chepiga – despite repeated claims from Kremlin that his picture “means nothing to us”.

Chepiga, 39, served in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. He was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of President Vladimir Putin in 2014.
Prime Minister Theresa May damned Russia for the attack at an address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
She said: “We have taken appropriate action, with our allies, and we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure our collective security.

“Russia has only sought to obfuscate through desperate fabrication.”
Moscow continues to deny claims of involvement, as officials called out Mrs May for refusing to present her evidence to them.
The country’s Ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, tweeted yesterday, quoting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “London arrogantly demands that we take responsibility for the crime just because they have some “evidence” no one has ever seen and they would not present it to the public. Frankly speaking, this is just childish.
“London violates at least three or four treaties and refuses to answer any questions. As for me, it is a clear sign of guilty conscience.”

The Russian embassy said in a statement: “The UK is refusing to provide the Russian investigation with any information or evidence gathered by British Police when working on the Salisbury incident.
“British authorities (earlier) announced that they did not intend to pursue extradition of the “suspects” and made it clear that they were not interested in submitting their own requests for legal assistance, which could be provided by means of interrogation of certain persons, provision of access to documents, etc.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We set out our position clearly this month. The Police and CPS have identified two men as the prime suspects in the attack in Salisbury. We have repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March, and they have replied with obfuscation and lies.
“We want these men to face justice in the UK and have taken steps to ensure that if they ever leave Russia in the future they can be arrested, detained and brought to the UK.”