A Russian plane linked to the country's government flew into the Seychelles the day prior to a 2017 meeting now under review by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to the airport flight data obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Mueller's team is examining a series of meetings that took place in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Much speculation has centered on one particular meeting that took place between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates (also known as "MBZ").

Few details have emerged about the contents of the meetings. Last year, the Washington Post described this meeting in its reporting as an attempt by the U.S. to set up a backchannel with Russia. Prince, in a testimony with the House Intelligence Committee in December, described his meeting on the island as a chance encounter.

But new details about a Russian aircraft that landed in the Seychelles the day before Prince has raised questions about the scope of the meetings that week and whether sanctions were a topic of conversation among participants.

The Russian aircraft in question departed from Moscow and landed in the Seychelles at 4:21 p.m. Jan. 10, 2017, according to the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority -- one day before Prince arrived on the island. The aircraft carried six passengers, including flight crew.

Two individuals familiar with the aircraft's purchasing history said the aircraft is owned by Andrei Skoch, a Russian billionaire who made his fortune in the mining business and is now a deputy in the Russian State Duma, the country's legislative body. The individuals requested to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to give out private aircraft owner information.

It is unclear if Skoch was on the aircraft, but employees at the Seychelles airport and the Four Seasons Hotel told NJ Advance Media that the plane's passengers stayed at the resort during their time on the island. The hotel was the setting of meetings among Prince, UAE representatives and Dmitriev, according to Prince's testimony with the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017. (The Daily Beast reported last week Prince has also been interviewed by Mueller).

What makes Skoch a particularly interesting figure in the ongoing drama? The U.S. Treasury Department in April placed him on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, a list that blocks an individual's assets and prohibits people from the U.S. from doing business with them.

(Dmitriev's fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, is also subject to U.S. sanctions.)

In his testimony, Prince denied discussing sanctions with Dmitriev and said he met the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund by chance.

But if Skoch participated in the Seychelles meetings that week in January 2017, it would raise the possibility state business, including sanctions, was discussed.

The sanctions issue sits at the center of the conversation about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

If sanctions were discussed by participants of the Seychelles meetings, it would shed light on whether and under what circumstances the Trump team planned to sideline the issue of Russia's intervention in Ukraine. The Trump administration eventually, after pressure from Congress, imposed sanctions on the Russians for meddling in the 2016 election.

The conversations in the Seychelles would have come at a time when the president's former national security adviser Michael Flynn was under fire in Washington for discussing sanctions with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

Whatever was discussed on the island that week in January 2017, flight records and interviews conducted with those familiar with Mueller's probe suggest the meetings in the Seychelles connect powerful players from Russia, the U.S., the UAE and Saudi Arabia across the political, financial and defense worlds.

Other individuals on the island that week include Alexander Mashkevitch, an alleged financier of Bayrock, an investment vehicle linked to Trump, was in the Seychelles. Mashkevitch's spokesman said the businessman was on the island for a family trip. Flight records show he flew in alone Jan. 10, 2017.

Sheikh Abdulrahman Khalid BinMahfouz, whose father was a billionaire and former chairman of Saudi Arabia's first private bank, was also on the island, as was George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman with ties to the White House and the Republican National Committee.

The New York Times reported in March that Mueller's team questioned Nader, who helped broker the Seychelles meeting between Prince and Dmitriev, about whether the Emiratis attempted to buy political influence in the White House.

Erin Banco may be reached at ebanco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ErinBanco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.