Russian Plane Crashed

The Russian passenger plane that crashed over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on October 31 was shot down, Russian government has confirmed. All 224 people on board were killed. According to a statement published on the government’s website, en.kremlin.ru, the director of the federal security service, Alexander Bortnikov said: “we have studied the passengers’ personal belongings and luggage and fragments  f the plane that crashed in Egypt on October 31. An expert examination of all these objects has found traces of foreign-made explosives.”

 Russia also described the taking down of the plane as an act of terrorism. “We can say with confidence that this was a terrorist act,” the statement further added. Quoted in the statement, President of Russia, Vladimir Putin said: “This is not the first time Russia experiences barbaric terrorist crime, usually without any obvious internal or external causes, the way it was with the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd at the end of 2013. We remember everything and everyone. “The murder of our people over Sinai is one of the bloodiest crimes in terms of the lives it claimed. We will not dry our tears – this will remain forever in our hearts and minds. However, this would not stop us from finding and punishing the perpetrators.

“We have to do it without any period of limitation; we need to know all their names. We will search wherever they may be hiding. We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them. “In these efforts, we need to rely on people who share the moral values that lie at the basis of our policy, in this case our foreign and security policy, our counterterrorism policy. “Our aviation should not simply continue military operations in Syria, but enhance them so as to make it clear to the criminals that vengeance is inevitable. “I would like to ask the Defence Ministry and the General Staff to make their proposals. I will check the progress of this work.

“I would like the Russian Foreign Ministry to turn to all our partners. We rely on all our friends in these efforts, including our search for and punishment of the perpetrators. “We will act in compliance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which envisages the right of a state to self-defence. “Whoever tries to help the perpetrators ought to know that they would bear full responsibility for any attempts to harbour them. I would like all our special services to focus on this work.” Meanwhile, Russia’s federal security service (FSB) has said it would pay $50 million for information about “terrorists” who brought down the plane in Sinai last month with 224 people on board. The FSB appealed for “help in identifying the terrorists” that exploded a bomb on the A321 plane travelling from Egypt to Russia. “There will be a reward of $50 million for information helping to arrest the criminals,” it said on its website.