His statement was more or less "oh, yes, we have it but if it is u/s we go anyway". This, well noted, on a "better" airline going to the "West" frequently.
In my company (a well known UK one!) it is permissible to fly with TCAS u/s for a period of time, and I have done so a few times. NB we all used the fly without TCAS pretty safely a few years back, and we still have Mode C v the other aircraft's TCAS.
If you can get 2 TCAS u/s aircraft in the same part of the sky AND an ATC "system" failure sufficient to cause a collision, it's not your day
As HF says, even in the West, training and SOPs have been tightened post this incident. In the East, life tends to be more "control based" and a larger cultural change needed to blindly obey a piece of kit contrary to an ATCO. Hanging the Russian crew out to dry (also dead) is as bad, IMHO, as hanging the ATCO out...