December 01, 2025

Volodya the Robot's New Job


Volodya the Robot's New Job
Volodya the robot on a Pobeda Airlines flight.  Pobeda Airlines

On November 14, low-cost carrier Pobeda ("Victory") announced the first-ever test of a robot flight attendant.

A robot named Volodya assisted the cabin crew during the approximately hour-and-a-half flight between Moscow and Ulyanovsk. His tasks included greeting passengers, examining their boarding passes, and helping with the pre-flight safety demonstration. When not working, Volodya appears to have calmly sat in a middle seat, answering questions and posing for selfies with curious passengers. 

While it is unlikely that Volodya will find regular employment with Pobeda, the airline expressed that it is prepared to use robots in its operations, provided that society and legislation are ready for the service. The technology is not intended to replace human-crewed flights but rather to improve customer service.

Volodya’s testing comes amid a boom for the company: passenger traffic is up by 5% since 2024. Despite bans from flying in the European Union and sanctions by the United States, Pobeda is still one of the fastest-growing airlines in Russia. A subsidiary of Aeroflot, it was founded in 2014.

As for Volodya, he is famous as the “first robot-blogger in Russia.” His services are for hire, and he can be rented for numerous jobs, including hosting birthday and graduation parties, attracting visitors to exhibitions, and even delivering marriage proposals. Among his recent appearances was a September visit to the Russian State Duma, where he assisted Deputy Andrey Svintsov. 

Despite his Russian name, Volodya (a diminutive of "Vladimir") is actually a Chinese-made robot produced by Unitree Robotics. The same Unitree G1 base model can be purchased for under $14,000, while the upgraded H1 humanoid-form robot costs nearly $100,000. 

The robot has been equipped with a Russian AI model developed domestically by Red Soft. Volodya is intended as a prototype to test the Russian software for future development. 

Volodya is not the only Russian robot making headlines theses days. In 2024, a robotic dog roamed the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and recently, Aidol tumbled onto the world’s stage. Sberbank has also entered the robotic race, unveiling its humanoid robot, Green, on November 19. After all, when one (A)idol falls, another one must rise to meet the challenge. 

You Might Also Like

A Russian AIDOL Falls
  • November 17, 2025

A Russian AIDOL Falls

Russia’s first artificial intelligence robot faceplanted after its first steps on a Moscow stage.
Stop My Flight If You Can
  • September 21, 2023

Stop My Flight If You Can

Despite sanctions, Russia imported Boeing and Airbus spare parts worth at least R18 billion in 2022.
No Money, No AI
  • January 23, 2023

No Money, No AI

Russia has reduced its funding of AI technologies and IT professionals are fleeing the country in droves.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955