Mysterious Tu-154 livery

[MSX]

Well, guys and girls, I am back, and I bring a question. I found this picture on Google, showing a truck, admittedly. But that's not what makes me curious. What's makes me curious is the Tu-154 in the background. I have never before seen that livery, but would like to see more of it. Someone on the site suggested it might be a military aircraft, if I understood things correctly, which would make sense with the red star on the tail.

Does anyone happen to have any information on it, or any more pictures of it?

[MSX]

Hello Oskar! This is Tu-154B СССР—85052 (reg. 32)
More info: https://russianplanes.net/reginfo/8058

[MSX]

Hey Oskar! Great to see back! Well this particular aircraft sporting quite an unusual and lesser known livery with the tail stars and stripes belonged to Soviet Air Forces, so yes, it's military.

[MSX]

Interesting. I didn't think the Soviet era air force had the Tu-154 in their inventory. But then again, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Is there any particular reason for this paint scheme?

[MSX]

Is there any particular reason for this paint scheme?

As you might have noticed this livery features the main attributes of the native corporate Aeroflot livery such as blue cheatlines applied to both sides of the aircraft's fuselage, grey underbelly, except corporate logos and favored red flag on the tail, these attributes were replaced with military themed stars and stripes just to distungish it from its commercial siblings.

[Офлайн Flight fanЗаслуженный авиатор]

Ok, yeah, that makes sense. I thought the aircraft might have had a special purpose, like VIP transport, SigInt, or something like that. But having it wear a different paint scheme than the civilian fleet, even if it's a minor difference, does make sense.