Russians make first test flight of their new Air Force 1

The Russians need a presidential aircraft to keep up with the Americans. They just test flew a Tupolev twin engine TU-214 destined for the Russian Air Force One role. Looks like an ordinary narrow body airliner, with winglets like a Boeing 737. No where near as cool and impressive as the Boeing 747 four engine jumbo jet flown by the Americans. But at least it is Russian built, the Russians would loose a lot of status points if they used a foreign built aircraft.
Of course Aeroflot is converting their entire fleet to western built airliners. Aeroflot brags that all their international flights use Boeing aircraft.
Western aircraft enjoy a safety record of 0.73 crashes per million flights. East bloc aircraft show 7.something crashes per million flights. You are ten times more likely to crash flying east bloc aircraft. I wish the Russians all possible luck with their new home built executive aircraft.