Jack Sweeny is stirring up controversy online again by tracking the flights of some of Russia's oligarchs, as they face pressure from the United States and its allies due to the Kremlin's massive attack on Ukraine.
The 19-year-old jet tracker duplicates his actions against Elon Musk, the world's richest person, via the popular Twitter account "Elon's Jet."
According to Sweeney, he set up the accounts on Twitter after getting requests to monitor the planes of Russia's wealthiest. Sweeney started tracking the plane on Twitter feed Russian Oligarch Jets. By using a list of planes being followed by a blog called "Radar Spots," he launched the page over the weekend, and it already has more than 52,000 followers, per BBC.
Russia's wealthiest people usually travel commercial-sized jets, which are huge compared to others, like Airbus A319 and Boeing 838. Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student, described the oligarchs' traveling planes as "absolutely crazy."
The Russian Oligarch Jets page does not only track airplanes but also private jets, helicopters, and commercial-sized airplanes. It also monitors those types of aircraft owned by tycoons like Russia's richest person Vladimir Potanin, steel mogul Alexander Abramov, and football club owner Roman Abramovich.
Teen Tracks Russia's Oligarch
Sweeney, an information technology major, said people have been asking him about Russian President Vladimir Putin for some time they inquire if "they could track him,"
While the secluded Russian president isn't a frequent flyer, Sweeney observed that many of Putin's wealthy countrymen are, and their flight activity is publicly available information. As a result, he did the next best thing to tracking down Putin: he followed Russia's elites.
Sweeney was taken aback by the rapid popularity of his bot, which automatically broadcasts public data on aircraft movements. However, he cautions that the information may not be entirely accurate given the scarcity of flight data in Russia.
Even though the Twitter account can track aircraft movements, it is unable to provide any important information, and it is uncertain about the passengers on the plane and their reason for traveling, as per Daily Mail.
The young lad admitted that before he became a jet tracker of Russia's elite businessmen, he was not well versed in the Russian power system or even what it meant to be an oligarch.
West Targets Finances of Russian Business People
Following the Soviet Union's collapse, oligarchs utilized personal networks to gain control over businesses that were owned by the government and profit from the new capitalism in Russia.
According to NBC News, the United States and The West are seeking to compel Putin to withdraw his soldiers from Ukraine have shifted their focus to wealthy Russian business people.
While Western forces have intensified sanctions against the Russian economy as a whole, they have also taken the extraordinary step of targeting the personal finances of Putin and the oligarchs.
Howard Stoffer, an international affairs professor at the University of New Haven, favors exposing the travel activities of Russia's oligarchs. He added that authorities should consider using the data use obtained by Sweeney's account to capture assets as the tycoons "should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them."
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