ReutersAzerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to accept blame for a plane crash on Christmas Day that killed 38 people.
The plane is thought to have come under fire from Russian air defence systems as it tried to land in Chechnya before being diverted to Kazakhstan, where it crashed.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to the Azerbaijani president over the downing of the plane in Russian airspace – but stopped short of taking responsibility.
Aliyev accused Moscow of an initial “cover up” over its involvement in the crash. While accepting Putin’s apology, he said Russia “must admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital of Grozny on 25 December when it is thought to have come under fire.
Flight J2-8243 was forced to divert from Chechnya and crashed near Aktau, in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 onboard.
Most of the passengers on the flight were from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation experts and others believe the plane’s GPS was affected by electronic jamming and it was then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air-defence missile blasts.
But Aliyev said that, in the days following the incident, “Russian agencies put forward versions [of events] about the explosion of some gas cylinder” which “clearly showed that the Russian side wants to cover up the issue”, according to a transcript of an interview with state media.
He also said that some in Russia had latched on to a theory that the plane had been hit by birds. Aliyev described both theories as “foolish and dishonest”.
The Azerbaijani president accepted that the plane had been shot down accidentally, but said that in the first three days following the crash, “we heard only absurd versions from Russia”.
Baku made a series of demands to Moscow on Friday over the incident, he said, only one of which – an apology – had so far been met.
On Saturday, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence systems were repelling Ukrainian drones, and expressed his “deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims”.
The Russian president acknowledged that the plane had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport, in Chechnya.
However, at the time the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were “being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks”, Putin said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” and that the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage was “very reminiscent of an air defence missile strike”.
The Kremlin read-out made no direct admission that the plane had been struck by Russian missiles.
Aliyev said Baku had demanded Russia “admit its guilt”, punish those at fault, and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.
Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The Azerbaijani president said: “No one would have thought that in a country that is friendly to us, our plane would be fired at from the ground.”
His remarks came as Azerbaijan paid tributes to the pilots and passengers of the downed plane.
Three crew members – Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – were given distinguished honours for landing the plane in a way that allowed 29 people to survive, even though it led to their own deaths.
