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Kremlin: no cause of Russian plane crash can be excluded

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are no grounds to consider any version more likely than others

MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. No version of the Russian plane crash in Egypt should be excluded but only investigators can announce the primary cause, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"Today no cause can be excluded but at the same time there are no grounds to identify one version as more or less reliable," he said.

"Only investigators can do this," he added.

"We have not heard any statements from investigators so far," Peskov said.

"Any other such conjectures have the nature of unverified information or speculations. If there are some more serious data, then we hope that these data, no matter who possesses them, will be placed at the disposal of investigators," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Specialists from several Russian ministries and departments are working at the crash site in Egypt, Peskov said.

"Naturally, all information is being accumulated and reported to the head of state," he added.

Each country has sovereign right to decide on flights to Egypt

Peskov said the decision to stop flights to Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh after the Russian plane crash is the sovereign right of each state.

The spokesman’s statement comes after the United Kingdom has decided to stop flights to Sharm el-Sheikh in the wake of the Russian airliner crash in Egypt.

"This is the sovereign right of Britain to fly or not to fly somewhere," Peskov said, commenting on London’s decision.

The UK’s decision is based "on some data and, again, assertions of the probability of some explosion," the Kremlin spokesman said.

In reply to a question about whether the Kremlin shared concerns over the safety of flights to Egypt, the Kremlin spokesman said: "Russian planes continue performing flights."

London cancelled on Wednesday all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh and the UK.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said there was a "significant possibility" that the Russian plane crash in Egypt had been caused "by an explosive device on board the aircraft."

Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 plane, en-route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed in the early morning of October 31 just some 20 minutes after its takeoff. The disaster site is 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the administrative center of North Sinai Governorate, the city of Al-Arish.

Flight 9268 carried 217 passengers and seven crewmembers and they were all officially announced dead following the tragic accident. Most passengers were Russian nationals. Among the passengers onboard were also four Ukrainian citizens and one Belarusian national.