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Kremlin says no evidence proving terrorist attack could have caused Tu-154 crash

All versions are under consideration, according to Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Artur Lebedev/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, December 26. /TASS/. No evidence has been found so far proving that the Tu-154 crash could have been caused by a terrorist attack, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"No, there is none," the Kremlin spokesman said when asked if there was any evidence proving the terrorist attack version. "This version is far from being the main one," Peskov stressed.

Read also

Minister says terror attack not main version of Tu-154 crash in Sochi

He pointed out that "none of the versions has been proved so far." According to Peskov, "all versions are under consideration", so "it is too early to speak of any established cause."

A Russian Defense Ministry Tu-154 bound for Syria crashed into the Black Sea in the early morning hours of December 25 shortly after taking off from Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

Russia’s Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, who heads the government commission on the investigation of the crash, said earlier that a terrorist attack was not viewed as the main version of the accident. According to him, a technical fault or a pilot error could have caused the crash. "Today, as far as I know, the main theories do not include a terrorist attack, we assume that either technical faults or a pilot error could have been the cause. But I’d like to emphasize that only the investigators, along with a special technical committee of the Defense Ministry, will establish the cause of the crash," the minister said at a briefing.

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