That reminds me of when the local news mentions “the pilot failed to file a flight plan” (which is not required for many flights – I’m speaking of General Aviation here) as if it were a contributing factor to a crash.
I was taught to evade to the right. If two aircraft are approaching each other and they both evade to the right, they should miss.
Just watched an update on BBC news.
Both planes were under control of Zurich ground control at the moment. The Tupolev responded too late to repeated calls to lower altitude. The anti-collision system in the DHL 757 prompted it to descend. Probably, the Tupolev’s similar system was indicating it to climb at that point, but they must have ignored it and carried out the descend instructed by Zurich flight control, minutes earlier.
Result: they descended into each other. 
up to date body count
Tupolev:
8 kids under the age of 12
44 kids between 12 and 16
5 adult passengers
12 crew members
DHL Boing:
2 pilots
The cause of the accident was as Coldfire described it: the Russian pilot took a long time reacting to the warnings of the Swiss ground control. When he finally obeyed the order to descend, the DHL plane’s anti-collision system had kicked in and made it descend as well.