News Analysis: Russia's recent findings on plane crash unlikely to affect ties with Egypt: experts

Moscow's latest findings that the Russian airliner crashed over Egypt's Sinai was due to a terrorist attack is unlikely to affect the manifold ties between Russia and Egypt, said Egyptian political experts.

Earlier on Tuesday, Moscow confirmed that a bomb attack brought down the Russian passenger jet in late October in Egypt's Sinai and killed all 224 people on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed vengeance and massive anti-terror campaign in Syria.

"International relations are based on interests, which, no matter how strong, do not mean that they can be free from some tension or disagreement," said Hassan Abu-Taleb, a political expert and researcher at Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"The Egyptian-Russian relations are sophisticated and various, as they have strong military, economic and political ties that are so difficult to be affected or ruined by some tension or accident," the expert told Xinhua.

Egypt said Tuesday that it will take the recent Russian findings into consideration while the Egypt-led 47-member multinational investigation committee is conducting its probe into the tragedy.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail also stressed that ties with Moscow have not been affected by the accident. "There is cooperation between the two sides in all fields," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The Sinai-based branch of the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group has claimed responsibility for the Russian plane crash, which, though, had been strongly refuted by both Egypt and Russia.

The Russian findings came a few days after deadly terror attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 300, for which the IS has also claimed responsibility.

France, whose leader described the attacks as "an act of war," is currently intensifying military participation in the U.S.-led international anti-IS alliance in the Middle East region.

"Perhaps Putin wanted to prove and confirm to the world the significance of its airstrikes against IS sites in Syria," Abu-Taleb argued. "The announcement gives a message to the West and to the United States that the Russian operations in Syria are justified and should be globally supported."

The plane crash added more recession to Egypt's tourism sector as it eventually led some countries, including Britain and Russia, to suspend their flights to Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh and to evacuate their nationals from there over security concerns.

The blow came as Egypt is already suffering deteriorating economic conditions and declining foreign currency reserves due to tourism recession. The recent Saudi-led alliance fighting the Houthi groups in Yemen has drained money and energy of donor Gulf States that generously supported Egypt.

"The economic damage is expected to increase in the coming period as Sharm el-Sheikh airport will be looked at as insecure. The already-deteriorating tourism sector will pay a greater price and such conditions are expected to go on for long, representing extra pressures on Egypt," the expert told Xinhua.

The Russian president said it was not the first time that Russia confronted "barbarous terrorist crimes," vowing to hunt down those responsible. "We will search for them anywhere they might hide. We will find them in any part of the world and punish them."

Nourhan al-Sheikh, a professor of political sciences at Cairo University and also expert in Russian affairs, also related the timing of the Russian announcement to the French response in the region to Paris attacks.

"Russia wanted to clarify that it has no less right or need to fight terrorism in the region," the professor told Xinhua. "Russia does not want to leave the field for the West and it also wants to strongly respond to the deadly attack on its citizens."

In late September, a month before the Russian plane crash, Russia decided to join the anti-terror war in the region by fighting "terrorism" side by side with the troops of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The move has been opposed by most Western countries that see Assad's fall as part of the solution for the Syrian crisis.

Professor Sheikh argued that the evidence that the plane crash was caused by a bomb might have been already there earlier, but the announcement has something to do with the recent terror attacks in Paris.

She also agreed that the relations between Russia and Egypt are unlikely to be affected by such a tragic accident or by the recent Russian findings that a bomb was behind it.

As for the consequences of the issue on Egypt's economy, the professor lamented that the influence may lead the country to a real economic crisis that might be amplified by the damage of the tourism sector.

"I believe the Egyptian economy is entering into a very tough stage," the professor concluded. Endit