Thoughts on the Russian Aircraft Crashes from Castle Argghhh

This post at Castle Argghhh talks about some possible implications of the recent losses of Russian aircraft.

The original reports indicated that the crashes were accidental, while more recent information is that at least one of the plane crews triggered a hijack alert before the crash. A blast in a bus terminal may also be linked (someone speculated that a hypothetical third hijacker may have decided not to martyr himself). Given Russia's historical tendency to avoid giving out any news until it has been properly "spun", we may be quite some time discovering what actually happened.