Between 1992 and 1994 he was director of "Фирма Эдельвейс" ("... Edelweiß"), a private company, which the two of them set up in Kazan, and which continued to operate as a real estate business nearly thirty years later.

[1] He served as a member of the parliamentary committee on ecology, management of the natural environment, agri-foods and foods policy.

[10][16] In December 2003 Airat Nazipovich Khairullin stood successfully for election to the State Duma (lower house of parliament / "Государственная дума"), to represent the single member constituency No.

[17] Four years later, in 2007, his name was included on the party list for United Russia, and when the mandates were distributed he had again become one of the 450 members of the State Duma, now of the 5th "convocation".

The crash site was on marshy ground some 6 km from the vast Kuybyshev Reservoir: the emergency services arrived on their rescue mission by hovercraft.

Initial reports were confused, but it subsequently emerged that Khairullin's pilot and assistant had been gravely injured and taken to hospital: their lives were not in danger.

[22][23] The funeral was held on 8 February 2020 at the Tatar State Philharmonic concert Hall (named in honour of the poet Ğabdulla Tuqay) in Kazan.

It was followed by a lengthy memorial meeting at which senior government officials and party leaders (and others) delivered a series of warm tributes to the deceased.