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Russian flights to Egypt will resume soon: Vladimir Putin

Flights to Egypt from Russia were suspended after a Russian plane crashed into the Sinai desert in October 2015.

Moscow: Russian flights to Egypt will resume soon, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call, Sisi's office said on Thursday.

Flights to Egypt from Russia were suspended after a Russian plane crashed into the Sinai desert in October 2015. ISIS said it brought down the plane with a bomb smuggled inside a fizzy drink can.

"President Putin affirmed Russia's intention to resume regular flights between Moscow and Cairo in the very near future," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

No date was given for flights to resume.

The Airbus A321, operated by Metrojet, had been returning Russian holiday makers from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh to St Petersburg. The crash killed all 224 on board.

Russia and Western governments said a bomb had brought the plane down and Sisi later said the cause was terrorism. Investigators have yet to confirm this.

Britain suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh as a result, and Russia suspended all flights to and from Egypt, devastating Egyptian tourism, a lifeline of an already battered economy.

( Source : reuters )
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