Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has acknowledged for the first time that a terrorist attack could have downed the Russian airliner on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on October 31 that killed all 224 people on board.
"The possibility of an act of terror is of course there as the reason for what happened," Medvedev admitted in an interview with the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on November 9.
Britain, the United States, Israel, and international investigators have suspected a bomb exploded aboard the Metrojet A-321 plane, though Russian and Egyptian officials have said it was necessary to wait for the results of the investigation before making such conclusions.
Islamic militants connected to the Islamic State (IS) group claimed to have downed the plane several hours after it crashed in the Egyptian desert in retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended all flights to Egypt on November 6.
The plane came down while en route from Egypt's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, unnamed U.S. sources said that U.S. intelligence agencies had intercepted Russian communications that indicate Russian officials believe the Metrojet plane was brought down by an on board bomb, Reuters reported on November 9.
