Russia has approached the White House with a deal to use the approximately $5bn of Central Bank of Russia (CBR) frozen assets trapped in the US to buy Boeing-manufactured planes and parts after a ceasefire in Ukraine goes into effect, Bloomberg reports, citing a source in Moscow.

While the request is not a precondition for a ceasefire, the ceasefire talks, which kicked off in Riyadh on February 18, have been going slowly as the Kremlin is seeking sanctions relief as part of any agreement. The Russian government is not explicitly linking the Boeing deal to a halt in hostilities, but it is making it very clear that it expects a quid pro quo if an agreement is struck, Meduza reports.

A representative of the US National Security Council said: "The United States will not discuss any economic obligations until a ceasefire is reached."​But previously the White House has made it clear that it is keen to do business with Russia and has been criticised for failing to put any pressure on Moscow which has been routinely ignoring a provisional agreement for a 30-day ceasefire and to refrain from striking Ukraine’s energy assets.

Despite the relatively small amount of Russian reserves frozen in the US, the money is enough to cover the purchase of several dozen Boeing 737 aircraft, each worth over $100mn.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's special envoy, recently returned from a five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and spoke of reformatting US-Russia relations through "some attractive business opportunities."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated a proposal to lift sanctions on Aeroflot, Russia's state-owned airline, and resume direct flights between the US and Russia as well as allow the acquisition of American aircraft. Additionally, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has expressed openness to resuming Russian titanium supplies to Boeing in exchange. Russia has a virtual monopoly on titanium production, an essential input in plane-making.

The extreme sanctions imposed at the start of the war have badly hurt Russia’s aviation industry, which is heavily dependent on foreign-made planes and parts. Russian airlines have been forced to cannibalise their existing planes for parts to keep the remaining fleet in the air.

The timing of Russia's proposal comes as Boeing is under mounting pressure as it gets caught up in the escalating trade war between the US and China. Chinese authorities last week cancelled all further purchases of US aircraft and components, a move that battered Boeing's stock. China accounts for about 20% of the company’s demand.

Russia could go some way to replacing that loss, as the civil aviation sector continues to rely heavily on Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. The country's ambitious import substitution programme to produce 990 aircraft by 2030 has faced setbacks. In March, Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov advocated for re-engaging with the foreign aviation industry and promoting domestic models like the MS-21 and Superjet, which have struggled with production and engine issues.​

White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt noted the potential for economic cooperation as an incentive for Russia to end the conflict: "There is an incentive for Russia to end this war. Perhaps it will be an economic partnership with the United States. But we must first see a ceasefire. Special Presidential Envoy [Steve] Witkoff made this clear to the Russians,"​ she said as cited by The Bell.

Echoing the sentiment, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged ongoing discussions: "The contacts were held behind closed doors, and we would not like to make them public ahead of time."​

The proposed "reserves for planes" deal is typical of the transactional multipolar world model that the Trump administration has introduced that is turning global trade on its head. But the Kremlin is quite happy with this new model, which fits neatly into both Putin and Xi’s world view of how the multipolar world should work, as they outlined in a 8,000 page joint statement issued last year.