The Public Procurement Department of the Sverdlovsk Region is going to lease three helicopters to transport patriarch Cyril to them. To this from the regional budget allocated 5.7 million rubles.

The relevant information appeared on the website of state procurement.

In the description of the procurement, the characteristics that the machines must match are given. The first helicopter should take on board four or five people, and most likely it's the Mi-8. The second helicopter should be designed for 22-24 people. In this case, we are talking about a single helicopter capable of raising so many passengers into the air, the world's largest Mi-26 helicopter. The third should accommodate seven passengers, and it requires chairs and a sofa for five people.

"I confess I thought badly about our leaders at first, but I realized that I was not trying for myself, in July Patriarch Kirill arrives in the Urals, there can not be any concurrences." Apparently, the turnpikes are obviously taking him and the suite, "wrote the State Duma deputy Andrei Alshevskikh on Facebook in the evening of June 6.

From the words of Alshevsky it is clear that the authorities are clearly counting on the order of a particular airline - UTair - Helicopter Services. She owns the largest fleet of Mi-26 helicopters in Russia, which she provides to order all over the world. As indicated on the company's website, it has a large fleet of various modifications of the Mi-8, including a business class with upholstered furniture on board. Customers are provided with aircraft in the interior of the luxury class - with maximum comfort, soft comfortable seats, restaurant meals of the highest level.

"It is noteworthy that the customer will pay not only the actual time of the raids (about 120-190 thousand rubles per hour), but also the helicopter transfer from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District to Ekaterinburg and back to the base, but we do not feel sorry for dear guests!" - writes Alshevsky.

Patriarch Kirill will come to the Sverdlovsk Region to attend the 100th anniversary of the shooting of the last Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov with his family in Yekaterinburg and his relatives in Alapaevsk (on the night of July 16-17 and July 17-18, 1918, respectively.) NEWSru. com).

In order not to cause unnecessary irritation

The interlocutor from the Ekaterinburg diocese confirmed Ura.ru: with the department of the Sverdlovsk region agreed the issue that the patriarch will move around the region only by helicopter. First, it will not be necessary to block roads for the cortege and cause unnecessary irritation to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in people, and secondly, it will be possible to hide from the eyes of the patriarch the flaky houses in Yekaterinburg and especially in the area that he could see from the car along the way.

According to the director of the department of information policy of the region Alexander Ivanov, such transportation is used only as a last resort, in fact often taking into account the security requirements or presentation of the site. "Well, do not forget: one flyby of a territory worth a million rubles on a helicopter can bring billions of investments," he explained.

Note that Patriarch Cyril often uses a helicopter to attend various events. At the end of October 2017 it was reported that the visit of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to Udmurtia, which lasted from October 13 to 15, cost almost two million rubles. The cost included not only the rent of helicopters, but also hotel accommodation and tuples.

And in August 2017, the believers had to wait two hours for the patriarch to arrive on a helicopter, who decided to visit the parish and inspect the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker under construction in Roshchino, Leningrad Region. People admitted that they came because "they never saw a living patriarch."