A large number of counterfeit spare parts for the aviation industry enter Russia from former Soviet republics, jeopardizing flight safety on both military and commercial aircraft, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.
Ivanov cited Transportation Ministry statistics from an inspection of more than 60,000 aircraft parts that exposed about 14,500 counterfeits.
"In plain Russian, they're all fakes," Ivanov said, Interfax reported.
In 2009 and 2010 alone, the Federal Customs Service filed 19 criminal cases and over 300 misdemeanor cases in connection with aircraft parts imports, he said.
Most of the counterfeit parts are imported to Russia illegally from bordering countries, he said. Ivanov mentioned Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia as transit points for counterfeit parts made in third countries and said much of the counterfeit production comes from CIS countries.
Ivanov also said the government was drafting a development program for the aircraft industry that the Cabinet would consider in the second quarter of next year.
The program will call for the modernization of existing production capacity and the building of new high-tech production lines, Ivanov added.
