Maksim covers aerospace developments in Central Asia for Aviation Week. He has worked for Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine and was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications after working for the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.
Maksim has a degree in international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow.
Russia had another strong year of defense exports in 2016, keeping its second-place spot on the global arms market, although new orders hit a five-year low.
The Lrwbca is supposed to be a 50:50 split, but the headquarters and engineering team will be in Shanghai, the project leader and possibly the engine Chinese.
China increasingly looks like it is taking a leading role in a politically driven widebody aircraft program defined in 2016 as an equal partnership between Moscow and Beijing.
