The collapse of russia’s “aviation greatness”: MAKS air show cancelled
The International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS), considered russia’s premier aviation event, has been completely removed from the government’s list of military exhibitions. The event has now been postponed for the fourth consecutive year.
MAKS had been held every two years since the collapse of the ussr and served as a showcase for russia’s aviation industry. Since 2023, organizers have promised the “most spectacular event of the decade” the following year, only to face the harsh reality each time — due to sanctions and the war, russia simply has nothing left to showcase.
The civilian aircraft manufacturing sector remains trapped in a state of chronic “import substitution” that has failed to deliver results, while leading international aerospace companies continue to avoid russia because of sanctions.
The cancellation of MAKS-2026 amounts to an official acknowledgment by the kremlin of the complete degradation of russia’s aviation industry. A platform that for decades helped sustain the myth of russia’s “technological power” has effectively been dismantled to avoid exposing the true state of the country’s aerospace sector to the world.
