Rare Russian visitor in the gloom

Coming in through the rain and dark cloud at 18:40 this evening, Rossiya Russia State Transport Company's Ilyushin Il-96-300 RA-96018 lines up with Runway 33 at Okęcie.

For more pics of rare and interesting Russian aircraft coming in to land at Okęcie click on these: Il-76 belonging to the Russian Emergency Control Ministry, and the world's largest helicopter, Mil-26T also belonging to same ministry. Rossiya also fly Tu-154Ms; this is the first time I've seen the their Il-96 overhead. On board this plane is Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, flying into Warsaw for a meeting with his Polish counterpart Radek Sikorski.

A propos of aviation - a series of posts about Polish pilots flying with the RAF coming up, marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.