Russian flag carrier Aeroflot will take a majority stake in the country’s second-largest airline, Transaero, under the terms of an agreement brokered by the Kremlin. The deal comes as Transaero founders under the weight of more than 100 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) of debt, much of it accrued in U.S. dollars. International sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its alleged military support for Ukrainian separatists have helped cut the value of the ruble in half over the past year, resulting in massive increases in the foreign debt loads of Russian companies. Meanwhile, international passenger traffic out of Russia has fallen dramatically due to the subsequent loss of its citizens’ spending power.

The deal calls for Aeroflot to take a 75-percent stake plus one share in privately held Transaero for a token payment of 1 ruble, according to Russian press reports. In a statement issued in Russian, Transaero confirmed the Russian government’s role in the deal.

“First deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov chaired session of the interagency commission devoted to issues of air transport industry,” said the statement. “In order to ensure further development of the [nation’s] civil aviation [industry], the commission approved of the idea of creating a larger air transportation group—to be one of the largest in the world—through merger of Transaero into Aeroflot Group.”

“Transaero shareholders believe that such a measure would serve the interest of the passengers, employees and partners of their company,” it added.

Despite the country’s wider economic problems, Aeroflot, which controls more than a third of the Russian air transport market, on August 31 reported better than expected operating and financial results for the first half of the year, due largely to a 33-percent increase in domestic traffic. Overall, passenger figures increased 14 percent year-over-year during the half, while revenues increased 25.8 percent. The company managed to turn an operating profit of 5.866 billion rubles ($88 million) during the period, compared with a loss of 1.384 billion rubles ($21 million) during the first half of 2014.