Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opinion of the loss of the Ilyushin-20 plane over the Mediterranean relies on the Defense Ministry’s information, while Israel’s arguments are still to be examined by Russian specialists, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media, TASS reports.
"Our Defense Ministry and General Staff have information about every minute and every second of all flights in that area, first and foremost, about our plane’s flight. It is this information that the president relies on," Peskov said.
He recalled that Putin in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accepted Israel’s proposal a delegation of experts under the Israeli Air Force Commander-in-Chief would bring its own data regarding the Ilyushin-20 incident to Moscow.
"For the time being they [Israel’s data] have not arrived. Our experts will certainly study them," Peskov said.
Asked if the Syrian side has shared its own data, Peskov said he knew nothing about that and the question should be addressed to the Defense Ministry. Asked if Syria’s President Bashar Assad had phoned Putin, Peskov answered in the negative, but remarked that there had been an official statement by Damascus on that score.