The Student Famous For Tracking Elon Musk's Jet Has A New Target: Russian Oligarchs

'Before this, I didn't even know there were these influential oligarchs like this. They probably do have a decent amount of power from what I can understand.’

'The aircrafts these oligarchs have are absolutely crazy,' Sweeney explained to Bloomberg. 'Their planes are huge compared to other jets.' 

They include planes owned by Vladimir Potanin, Russia's wealthiest citizen, Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, and Alexander Abramov, a steel magnate.

Sweeney's account is currently tracking 19 oligarchs' 39 planes and helicopters.

'People have been asking me about Putin for a while, they wanted to know if they could track him,' said Sweeney to NBC. 'It's just been crazy. I just figured some people would be interested in it. I just didn't think all kinds of people would be.'

Sweeney used a list of planes that had already been tracked by a blog called Radar Spots, ranging from private jets and helicopters to commercial-sized planes.

On Sunday, one of Abramovich's jets landed in Latvia, while another of his helicopters flew over the Caribbean. One of Abramov's jets landed in Abu Dhabi recently, while another landed in Munich.

Sweeney has also set up a second account to track planes registered to Russian VIPs such as President Putin.

He cautions, however, that the information may not be entirely accurate due to the scarcity of flight data in Russia.

Although the account can track aircraft movements, it is unable to provide any important context, and it is unclear who might be on the flights or why they are traveling.

Nonetheless, one Russian expert believes authorities should seize assets based on the information received through Sweeney's account.

'They should be exposed and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them,' Howard Stoffer to NBC, who teaches international affairs at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

'Get these airplane tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they're located, and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate.'

After both the European Union and Canada barred Russian airlines from their airspace, none of the Russian jets will be able to fly over them.

Moscow retaliated by banning airlines from 36 nations, including all 27 European Union members.

Commercial airlines are forced to divert flights south to avoid areas of Middle Eastern unrest as a result of the ban on entry to Russia's airspace.

According to US officials, the US is considering similar action as well but has yet to make a final decision.

Sweeney originally gained notoriety because Elon Musk instructed him to deactivate his Twitter account, which tracked the location of his private plane.

Musk had previously urged Sweeney to close the account in exchange for $5,000 earlier in the fall, citing it as a "security risk," but he declined and instead requested an internship.

Sweeney answered Musk's offer with a $50,000 demand, which Musk turned down.