The question was prompted by my Russian colleagues refusing to travel internally by air - insisting on the train!
That's a perfectly valid question. There were many western corporations, including my employer for a while, which specifically prohibited their employees from using internal flights within the Former Soviet Union. Some flights which I took in the 1990's were truly appalling, seats without belts, overcrowding etc. Whether FSU internal flights are/were any safer than western flight routes I don't know, I suspect there probably isn't/wasn't much in it. Also, bear in mind, when looking at safety statistics, some of the bizarre circumstances of crashes in the FSU, things like planes being shot down by missiles, terrorist incidents, air traffic control (and not just their own ATC). I would hazard a guess that the actual planes are as reliable and safe as those manufactured in the west