Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in the city of Yaroslavl on the Volga River on Thursday, a day after a plane carrying a major ice hockey league team crashed there.
Medvedev was due to address an economic forum in the city but altered his schedule to visit the crash site.
Forty-three people - including all of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players and coaches but one - were killed after the jet came down shortly after taking off from the city's Tunoshna airport on Wednesday.
Only two people, Russian player Alexander Galimov and a member of the crew, survived the crash and have been hospitalized in critical condition.