Alexander Lebedev, a deputy in the lower house of parliament and a co-owner of the NRC, said his company intended to vote against the deal at a meeting of the Aeroflot board of directors December 15.
However, the NRC could alter its position if Aeroflot proves in figural terms that RRJ jets, which are only 40% Russian-made, are better than the existing An148 planes, which are mostly of Russian make (70%), he said.
According to Lebedev, the Aeroflot charter and the law on joint stock companies require major deals to be approved by the board of directors first, which was not done in this case.
But Aeroflot and Sukhoi officials dismissed the NRC's protest, calling it the private opinion of shareholder Lebedev, who lobbied the purchase of An148 planes.
On December 7 Aeroflot and the Sukhoi civil aircraft maker signed a contract on the supply of 30 new RRJs (Russian Regional Jets) worth about $820 million at catalog prices, starting from 2008. The real sum of the deal was not disclosed due to commercial secret.
RRJ is the first Russian jet created in broad cooperation with leading world suppliers like Messier-Dowty and THALES.
