I am not surprised to read that the Russians are upset about criticism of their ATC. It's not the first time. Anyone remember Armavia Flight 967.
Frankly, it mystifies me. Overall, I think that Russia has grown a lot in recent years in terms of its accident investigations and they deserve credit for that. I think the way they handled this investigation was credit worthy....except for ATC issues. For some reason any criticism of Russian ATC is off limits. I don't know why. It just is.
The way I see it the Russians just can't seem to draw a distinction between violations of international norms and professionalism. The behavior of ATC in this case didn't represent the highest standards of the profession. That doesn't mean they are to blame. But try pointing that out to the Russian and watch them get angry. Flight 967 is another good example. The behavior of ATC in that case was not professional. It simply wasn't. Did this lack of professionalism cause Flight 967 to crash? No. But it still was unprofessional.