Which again makes us wonder if it was not a bomb onboard
Always a valid concern, but probably not that likely in this case. Would be quite the embarrassment for airport security with a flight like this.
Only 2 minutes after T/O, if stuff hit the fan it's likely there would be no time or spare capacity for a low priority radio contact.
Such a pointless tragedy though. Given Russia's defense budget why are they still flying this stuff in a less than ideal condition.