Originally Posted by
Airbubba
we don't know the local elevation where they were but it doesn't look like a valley to me
Correct.
The 975' AMSL point (± the QNH correction, which we now know was negligible) occurred just as the track was approaching the Gorki Leninskiye ("Lenin Hills" - the clue's in the name), one of the highest points in the Greater Moscow area at approximately 720' AMSL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparrow_Hills