State Moves to Seize Control of Russia's Premier Travel Booking Platform

The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia has filed a lawsuit seeking to nationalize the assets of Sirena-Travel, the company behind the country's dominant Leonardo flight booking system. The case, filed with Moscow's Nikulinsky Court, targets the firm's private shareholders.

According to a report by RBC, which reviewed court documents and confirmed details with three sources familiar with the filing, the state aims to transfer Sirena-Travel's property to federal ownership. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 18.

The list of defendants includes Sirena-Travel's CEO Mikhail Baskakov, his son Innokenty Baskakov, and several other private individuals and shareholders like Rasul and Ibrahim Suleymanov. One defendant, Alexey Shelukhin, told RBC he received a summons but was unfamiliar with the claim, stating his only link was that Sirena-Travel holds shares in a company he part-owns. He also noted shareholders had informed him of frozen bank accounts.

Another defendant cited by RBC claimed real estate belonging to those named in the suit has already been seized. Those currently in Russia have been barred from leaving the country.

Sirena-Travel's Leonardo system is the primary booking engine for nearly all major Russian airlines, also powering the Astra airport check-in platform. The company has grappled with operational stability, suffering repeated hacker attacks and breaches, with a significant service disruption occurring just last month.