Putin’s spokesman said the Russian president “has tasked the government with working out a mechanism to realize the recommendations of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee and to ensure the return of Russian citizens to the motherland”.
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Egypt is not allowing British airlines to fly additional non-scheduled repatriation flights to bring back holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the airline easyJet said on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who authorised strikes against fighters including IS militants in Syria, said assessments of the crash should be based on the “ongoing official investigation”, according to the Kremlin.
“As previously, no theory [on the causes of the crash] can dominate, because there isn’t any clear convincing evidence pointing towards this one version [of a terrorist attack, ]” he was cited as telling journalists on Friday following the announcement.
Outbound flights to Sharm al-Sheikh were still suspended and Britain advised against air travel to or from the airport, she said.
But another carrier, Monarch, insisted it was still planning to operate five flights out of Sharm El-Sheikh on Friday, two of them into Manchester Airport.
Britain’s public airing of its concerns about a bomb being responsible for the Russian air crash angered Egypt, which depends on tourism revenue, and drew criticism from the Kremlin, which said it had not been given details of the intelligence behind Britain’s move.
The British government has confirmed that the Thomson Airways plane from London Stansted airport was “forced to take evasive action” on August 23 after the missile was spotted by the pilot a few 1,000 feet (300 meters) away, the Guardian says.
Noting the uncertainty over what happened to the crashed airliner, Russia’s security service director says, “It would be reasonable to stop Russian aviation flights to Egypt”, according to state-run Tass media.
The plane crashed on Saturday while it was flying over Sinai. And the Islamic State group claimed responsibility. “I don’t think we know yet, ” Obama told the Seattle radio station KIRO in an interview.
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Hundreds of stranded tourists are now waiting in Egypt’s elite resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for flights out of the country, but the investigations and restrictions have grounded many flights.
