The Daesh [Islamic State] group said it smuggled a bomb on board that blew up the Russian jet on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board.
On Nov. 17, Moscow said an investigation had found that the plane which took off from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was brought down by a bomb on board, a view shared by aviation experts.
"The technical committee has not received to date any indication of the presence of illicit meddling or a terrorist action," said Ayman El-Mokkadem, the Egyptian head of a probe into the crash.
"The committee continues its work concerning the technical investigation," he said in a statement released by the Civil Aviation Ministry. "I can only recall the conclusion of our experts and our special services that indicates it was really a terrorist act," Kremlin front man Dmitri Peskov said, reacting to Mokkadem's remarks.
On Nov. 17, Russia's President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...announced that Russian Sherlocks had found evidence of a bomb on board, and vowed to punish the attackers.
"We will search for them anywhere they might hide. We will find them in any part of the world and punish them," he said.
The same day, Russian security chief Alexander Bortnikov said the passenger jet was brought down by a bomb with a force equivalent to one kilogram (two pounds) of TNT.
"We can say unequivocally that this was a terrorist attack," he said.
"Investigation carried out on all objects (personal belongings of passengers, baggage and parts of the aircraft) showed traces of foreign-made explosives," Bortnikov said at the time.