Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.

Thirty eight people were killed and dozens survived a plane crash in Kazakhstan while traveling to southern Russia, according to local officials, as speculation swirls online that Russia could somehow have been responsible for the crash.

Russia and Kazakhstan have tried to calm speculation about the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, following claims it had been shot down by Russian air defence systems. On Thursday, Moscow urged calm as its foreign minister said it would be wrong to come to conclusions before an investigation into the crash was complete.

Igor Kirillov, who was named the head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces in April 2017, was under sanctions from several countries including the U.K. and Canada for his role in Ukraine.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday (December 26) that it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian military officers and their families in Moscow,

Russia’s top security agency says that it has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers