Hi Anvaldra,
Thanks for correcting my misinterpretation of the runway-state information on the
relevant Kaliningrad METARS that I posted here a few hours after the accident (post #5), and for the two explanatory tables.
Of course we know that, despite the existence of ICAO, there remains no single, worldwide standard for the codes used in METARS. I was not aware (or had perhaps forgotten in retirement), however, that the countries of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent states, comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) promulgate braking-coefficient data on a different scale from the rest of the world. This seems unnecessary, as I imagine the conversion could be made easily by the agency that transmits the CIS METARS into the system.
It is also surprising, particularly as the values are similar but higher than ours, that this potentially-misleading difference is not indicated in the METAR format. In the case of wind speeds, for example, the use of metres-per-second instead of knots is clearly indicated by the addition of "MPS". In the case of North America, where the values of QNH are quoted in inches of mercury instead of hectopascals, the figures are so different that there is no confusion.
Returning to this Kaliningrad accident, however, I entirely agree with you and Icelanta that there is unlikely to have been any confusion by the Aeroflot crew. However, if a non-CIS crew with no experience of ops into CIS airports ever had to divert to Kaliningrad suddenly in an emergency, they might find the runway considerably more slippery than expected.