It comes as the head of Russia's civil aviation agency says the situation in Grozny, the plane's destination, was "very complicated" at the time.

Experts say evidence in the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan points to a possible midair explosion, not an encounter with a flock of birds.

Moscow on Thursday warned against speculation that Russian air defenses may have caused the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan this week that killed 38 people. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that it was “necessary to wait for the end of this probe” before casting any speculation. “It would be wrong to…