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Egypt, Russia agree on compensation for 2015 plane crash victims

September 17, 2021 at 2:44 pm

Spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Moscow, Russia on November 27, 2020. [ RUS Foreign Affairs Ministry – Anadolu Agency]

Russia and Egypt have reached a “principled understanding” on compensation for the families of the victims of a plane crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in 2015, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.

“Since August 9, air traffic has resumed with the Egyptian resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, told reporters.

“During the talks with the Egyptian side, the topic of payments to the families of the Russian citizens who died in the terror attack has been consistently paid attention to by the Russian Foreign Ministry,” Zakharova pointed out, adding that the efforts had led to the Russian embassy in Cairo reaching a “principled understanding with the Egyptian partners on this issue.”

The Russian official noted that the details on the payments were being “worked on now.”

Zakharova explained that the flight resumption had come following “intensive work with Cairo through the relevant ministries and authorities on raising security at the Egyptian airports.”

Flights between Russia and Egypt were suspended in November 2015 after a plane, flying from Egypt’s western resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to Russia’s St. Petersburg, exploded over Sinai, leaving all 217 passengers and seven crew members dead. Air traffic between the two countries resumed in August following years of negotiations and security inspections.

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