MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian airstrikes in Syria and the Russian A321 passenger jet's crash in Egypt are two different stories and there is no need to speculate that they are related, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
"Any sort of hypothetical thoughts in regard to this are completely inappropriate. Again, these are completely different stories, absolutely different issues that don’t need to be connected," Peskov told journalists.
Peskov said that there were different types of speculations concerning the reason of the plane crash, but the investigation into the tragedy needed to be completed before making any type of concrete conclusions.
"There is a huge number of speculations on both of these [Russian airstrikes in Syria and the A321 crash]. We have said a number of times that while the investigation is ongoing, you can speculate as much as you’d like, but that doesn’t mean that there is any relationship to the actual situation. As soon as the investigation begins to reveal information, it will be provided to the public."
"A number of countries has actually offered their help in investigating the reason of this air crash, but, as you know, there are international rules…This means that participants [in the investigation] are first the country in whose airspace or territory the tragedy occurred, and the country, in this case, of citizens on the aircraft, and in this case, this is Russia," Peskov told journalists.
"Any specific dates cannot be set. It's just not logically possible, therefore, of course, there is nothing to say here, no dates have been set. Dates are never set in the course of an investigation."
On Monday, US media reported that a US surveillance satellite detected a heat flash over the Sinai Peninsula at the same time the Russian plane crashed on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board. According to the reports, the US intelligence analysts believed the flash could have been a bomb exploding or a fuel tank detonating after an explosive blast.
"I don’t know yet. Like you, I found out from the media. But I shall reiterate that the investigation is taking place. We have an independent one, as do the Egyptian authorities. I simply cannot reply whether they will, how, when," Peskov said, answering a question on whether Moscow would request the US satellite information.
