President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those
responsible for blowing up a Russian airliner over Egypt and intensified air
strikes against militants in Syria, after the Kremlin concluded a bomb had
destroyed the plane last month, killing 224 people.
Putin ordered the Russian navy in the eastern Mediterranean
to coordinate its actions on the sea and in the air with the French navy, after
the Kremlin used long-range bombers and cruise missiles in Syria and announced
it would expand its strike force by 37 planes.
"We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish
them," Putin said of the plane bombers at a somber Kremlin meeting
broadcast on Tuesday. The FSB security service swiftly announced a $50 million
bounty in a global manhunt for the bombers.
Until Tuesday, Russia had played down assertions from
Western countries that the Oct. 31 crash was the work of terrorists, saying it
was important to let the official investigation run its course.
But four days after Islamist gunmen and bombers killed at
least 129 people in Paris, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB, said in
televised comments that traces of foreign-made explosive had been found on
fragments of the downed plane and on passengers' personal belongings.
"We can unequivocally say it was a terrorist act,"
Bortnikov said at a Kremlin meeting.
Egyptian authorities have detained two employees of Sharm
al-Sheikh airport, where the downed plane originated, for questioning, two
security officials and an airport employee said on Tuesday.
"Seventeen people are being held, two of them are
suspected of helping whoever planted the bomb on the plane at Sharm al-Sheikh
airport," said one of the security officials, who both declined to be
named.
The Airbus A321, operated by Metrojet, had been returning
Russian holiday makers from the Egyptian resort to St Petersburg when it broke
up over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all on board. A group affiliated with
Islamic State claimed responsibility.
RETRIBUTION
Putin, wearing a dark suit, presided over a minute of
silence in memory of the victims at the Kremlin meeting, before telling
security and military chiefs the incident was one of the bloodiest crimes in
modern Russian history.
"Our air force's military work in Syria must not simply
be continued," he said. "It must be intensified in such a way that
the criminals understand that retribution is inevitable."
On Tuesday evening, Putin visited the defense ministry's
command center in Moscow, to hear reports from military chiefs about what they
were doing to implement his orders.
As dozens of uniformed servicemen watched on, the defense
minister and top military officials gave Putin their reports one-by-one,
reporting that long-range bombers had loosed 34 cruise missiles and that Russia
would bolster its strike force of around 50 planes and helicopters with a
further 37 aircraft.
"You are defending Russia and its citizens," Putin
told military chiefs. "I want to thank you for your service and wish you
luck."
Russia began air strikes in Syria at the end of September.
It has always said its main target is Islamic State, but most of its bombs in
the past hit territory held by other groups opposed to its ally, President
Bashar al-Assad.
A senior French government source said Russia had launched
air strikes against the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria on
Tuesday, signaling Moscow was becoming more concerned about the threat posed by
IS.
A French defense official said Russia's realization that its
plane had been felled by a bomb was a wake-up call for Moscow.
"What’s changed is less that France has changed, but
that Russia has," said the official. "Russia has acknowledged that
the plane was an attack carried out by Daesh (Islamic State). Russia ... is now
beginning to say to itself that Daesh is also its enemy and has to be
hit."
Putin, in language reminiscent of how he talked about
Chechen militants during a war when he came to power 15 years ago, ordered the
secret services to hunt down those responsible.
"We must do this without any statute of limitations and
we must find out all their names," he said, invoking Russia's right to
self defense under the United Nations charter.
"Anyone who tries to help the criminals should know
that the consequences for trying to shelter them will lie completely on their
shoulders."
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