Egypt's Airports to Implement All Russian Security Demands in Coming Weeks

The Egyptian authorities have implemented almost every airport security measure demanded by Russia with the remaining ones to be taken in the coming weeks, an aid to the Egyptian interior minister, Hisham Bastawi, said Friday.

CAIRO (Sputnik) — A biometric system of employee access to airports, which, in particular, monitors the movement and time of arrival and departure of staff, is among the measures to be implemented, according to the minister.

"Russian experts during their last visit asked the Egyptian authorities about a number of additional measures, which have been nearly all implemented. Several remaining simple measures will be taken in the coming weeks," Bastawi told Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper in an interview.

On Thursday, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said that the Egyptian authorities were planning to complete the measures to ensure security at the airports by the end of 2016.

Russia grounded flights to and from Egypt after an Airbus A321 plane flying to St. Petersburg crashed soon after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh on October 31, 2015. All 224 people aboard died as a result of what was classified by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) as a terrorist attack.