On the morning of August 14, an Il-96 aircraft from the Rossiya Special Flight Squadron (SLO) departed Moscow for Alaska, Radio Liberty reports.According to flight tracking service Flightradar24, the aircraft, tail number RA-96023, took off from Vnukovo Airport at around 8:00 a.m., heading to Anchorage, U.S.The Anchorage stop—likely at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base—is the planned site for the August 15 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, where the leaders are set to discuss the war in Ukraine and potential avenues for ending the conflict. TASS reports that one of the advanced teams preparing the summit may be aboard the flight.RA-96023 is frequently used by Russian officials at various levels. In 2024, the plane was employed for rotating Russian and U.S. diplomats, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. It has also been regularly used by Nikolai Patrushev during his tenure as head of the Security Council.The aircraft gained wider attention seven years ago, as reported by the investigative project Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s “System.” Nearly 400 kilograms of cocaine were seized from Russian embassy buildings in Buenos Aires. Photographs released by the Argentine gendarmerie showed the Russian plane that was intended to transport the cocaine back to Russia—though the cargo had reportedly been swapped by that time.In the photos, the aircraft’s registration number was visible: RA-96023—the same SLO Il-96 “Rossiya” now flying to Alaska. Shortly after the Argentine gendarmerie released the images, the Russian Presidential Administration stated that the plane had not been involved in transporting cocaine and suggested that the photos “may have been falsified.”