Vladimir Putin has finally admitted his military’s role in the Azerbaijani plane crash following accusations from Baku that Moscow tried to ‘hush up’ the tragedy
Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia was to blame for the crash of a doomed Azerbaijani plane that killed 38 people on Christmas Day – after earlier denials from Moscow.
The Russian president said his country’s air defences were targeting a Ukrainian drone when they mistakenly fired near the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet. He added that two missiles exploded just 33 feet from the plane, calling it a “technical malfunction”.
Putin’s first public admission of responsibility – made during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev – appeared to be an attempt to calm rising tensions between the neighbouring nations following the tragedy.
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The jet, flying from Baku, was preparing to land in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, when it crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board on December 25. Putin vowed to punish those responsible and provide compensation during a summit of the former Soviet nations in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, on Thursday.
“The Russian side will obviously do everything to provide compensation and give legal assessment to all responsible officials’ action,” he said. “Of course, these words related to this tragedy, aimed at supporting – morally supporting – the families do not solve the main problem: We can’t bring back to life those who died as a result of the tragedy.”
Aliyev told Putin: “I would like to thank you for keeping the situation under your personal control”. The Azerbaijani president had earlier accused Moscow of trying to “hush up” the incident.
Authorities in Baku had claimed that the Embraer 190 jet was accidentally hit by Russian fire before attempting to make an emergency landing in western Kazakhstan.Putin at the time apologised to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident”, but did not take any responsibility, while other Kremlin officials flatly denied any involvement.
The crash has rocked ties between Moscow and Baku, which were already strained after the deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russian police custody in June and a series of arrests of Russians in Azerbaijan. “I hope that our cooperation not only will be restored, but continue in the spirit of our relations, the spirit of our alliance,” Putin said.
In turn, Aliyev said he hoped their messages and talks of a bilateral agenda “will meet a positive response” in both countries. Relations with Baku have become increasingly important for the Kremlin since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Azerbaijan serves as a key transport corridor for Russia’s trade with Iran and other countries in the Middle East.
Azerbaijan’s close ally Turkey has also become a major economic lifeline for Russia, which has been slapped with a barrage of Western sanctions. Meanwhile, Russia remains the main market for Azerbaijan’s fruit and vegetable exports and is home to a large Azerbaijani diaspora.