officials, as many as 79,000 russian tourist in sharm el sheikh. the russian authorities haven t indicated whether they will also be putting on the so-called rescue flights. that s going to cause further turmoil in that already troubled airport. george? ben wedeman live in cairo, egypt. thank you very much for your reporting. again, as ben mentioned, a news conference set to happen in the coming hours in cairo. we will learn more about the investigation from authorities there. now let s turn to our international diplomatic editor, nic robertson, who is live in st. petersburg, russia, to talk about how people are handling the investigation there. there are so many questions now. no concrete answers. this is a time when people are grieving there. reporter: they are. 224 people died aboard that flight sunday. tomorrow there will be a service at st. isaac s cathedral behind me.
is, u.s. intelligence, all the way up to the president, has said it s possible. they have assigned that kind of capability to this terrorist group, so that effect is you ve got up to 80,000 russians right now who are trying to get home from egypt to russia. they were one of the few populations still going there, that s one of the major life forces of the egyptian economy, so that knock-down effect is the egyptian public starts to lose a lot of their ways of making a living. this is a country that already has a lot of people living below the poverty line. the egyptian government then gets sort of starved out, can t take care of its people, can t provide the jobs they need, more of them get dissatisfied and join the ranks of the militants. this is a pattern you ve seen again and again within egypt and other countries over decades. important point. bob, look, there s no doubt the security at sharm el sheikh
their words, absolutely nothing. using the french word, we can understand it, it was non-accidental. then they used another french word we ll give you a translation for it they said it an attack. now, this follows president putin today suspending flights to egypt until the cause of the crash is known. remember, these are the guys who just yesterday were saying hey, the calls about a possible terrorism attack attached to this crash they are premature. though there were new reports that the concerns were sparked by intercepted isis communications regarding a possible attack, they there still is no conclusive hard evidence of terrorism. pieces of the wreckage have been flown to russia for analysis regarding that. meanwhile, the sharm el-sheikh airport, that s in the sinai peninsula, that s where the doomed plane left from, there was chaos today. remember the uk has suspended all of its flights
heightened security at sharm el sheikh airport after the devastating plane crash. tourists there aren t sure how and when they will get home. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that s a good thing, but it doesn t cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn t pay and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans, you ll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed.
from your reporting on russians in egypt. that s pretty big. all right, nic robertson, thank you so much. so let s get more analysis now. joining us from new york, cnn contributor, michael weiss, the co-author of isis: inside the army of terror. so, michael, good to see you,.egyptians didn t necessarily say it was a bomb this morning, but other investigators as well as the u.s. and uk believe that there has been some sort of explosion. so what does this tell you? if, indeed, isis, which insists some responsibility, what does it tell you about the seriousness of the isis threat or reach if, indeed, that group is responsible? well, i think the most alarming aspect so far, and again, this is assuming that this was, in fact, a bomb. i think it s quite right to stress that the investigation is still underway. the most alarming aspect to me is that it will have been done with an insider. somebody in the security services of sharm el sheikh airport or perhaps even within