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Noting that "where human life is valued, extraordinary efforts are extended to preserve and protect it," Reagan declared that every civilized society must "ask searching questions about the nature of regimes where such standards do not apply." He asked pointedly of the Soviet Union: "What can we think of a regime that so broadly trumpets its vision of peace and global disarmament and yet so callously and quickly commits a terrorist act to sacrifice the lives of innocent human beings?"
His anger and the world's outrage were augmented beyond the deed itself by Moscow's sullen and specious responses to the unequivocal evidence of what had happened. After remaining virtually silent on the matter for almost two days, the Soviet Union finally issued a labored account of an "unidentified plane" that had "rudely violated the state border and intruded deep into the Soviet Union's airspace." TASS admitted that Soviet interceptors had "fired warning shots and tracer shells along the flying route of the plane," but refused to acknowledge shooting it down.
TASS implied that the U.S. had planned the course deviations that took Alight 007 into Soviet territory, since "relevant U.S. services followed the flight throughout its duration in the most attentive manner." Hinting that the jetliner was on a spy mission, it added, "So one may ask that if it were an ordinary flight of a civil aircraft. . . then why were there not taken any steps from the American side to end the gross violation of the airspace of the U.S.S.R.?" TASS said that 'leading circles" in the Soviet Union express "regret" over the loss of life, but the news agency dismissed the worldwide uproar over the attack as mere "hullabaloo."
Shultz's reply was quick, angry and scornful: "No coverup, however brazen or elaborate, can ... absolve the Soviet Union of its responsibility to explain its behavior."
He was echoed a few hours later at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council by Charles Lichenstein, the U.S. acting permanent representative. "Let us call the crime for what it is, wanton, calculated, deliberate murder," he said. While the Soviet delegate, Richard S. Ovinnikov stared icily into space, Lichenstein spelled out what "we might expect a normal, civilized government" to do in the event of a tragedy like that of Flight 007, including the admission of responsibility and the undertaking of steps to ensure that it never happens again. For its part, the Soviet Union is simply "lying—openly, brazenly and knowingly. It is the face of a ruthless totalitarian state." Ovinnikov, declaring the session "unjustifiable," proceeded to read the TASS account of the episode to delegates.