No exact date for Russian tourists' return to Egypt

Russian Ambassador here Serge V. Kirpichenko stressed that he cannot give an exact date for the return of Russian tourists to Egypt but said there is an honest desire by both sides to return Russian tourists to Egyptian resorts soon.

The return of Russian tourists to Egypt is linked to the results of the current investigations into the crash of the Russian plane last year, he told MENA.

The Russia-operated Airbus A321 crashed on October 31, 2015 en route from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg.

All 224 people on board the plane were killed. The crash has become the largest civil aviation disaster in Russian history. Soon after the catastrophe, Russia suspended all passenger flights to and from Egypt.

Moscow is convinced that the crash is a terrorist act, the diplomat said, saying what happened was a harsh below to Russia because the loss of soul is uncompensated.

This was a mean act but it cannot influence Egyptian-Russian relations, the diplomat said.

There is almost a daily meeting of Russian experts to stand on the reasons of the crash and ways of avoiding it in the future, he said, denying reports that Moscow does not want to send tourists back to Egypt because it wants to preserve its hard currency.

Russians are free to spend their money on whatever they want, he said.

Asked about new measures to secure Egyptian airports, he said Cairo and Moscow are exchanging information in this regard and all Russian remarks were addressed by the Egyptian side.

Of course, Moscow welcomes buying new equipment at Egyptian airports and introducing amendments to security systems, he said.