Aliyev says Russia is “guilty” for the downed Azerbaijani plane

Monday, the president of Azerbaijan said that Russia was “guilty” for shooting down an airliner last month. Baku says that Russian air defenses did it.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. The plane had been trying to land in Grozny, Russia, but had to be diverted.

Moscow has said that its air defenses were in place in the area at the time when it said Ukrainian drones were attacking.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was sorry that the “incident” happened in Russian airspace, but he hasn’t said anything about the claims that Russian weapons hit the plane.

The Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, said on Monday, “Representatives of the Russian Federation are responsible for the deaths of Azerbaijani citizens.” This was reported by his office.

Aliyev was meeting crew members who were still alive and family members of crew members who died in the accident.

Along with Putin, the leader of Azerbaijan has harshly criticized Moscow over the crash, calling for an apology, an admittance of guilt, and punishment for those found to have shot down the plane in a “criminal” way.

He said on Monday that Russia’s “concealment” of the causes and “delusional versions” being put forward “give us good reason to be angry.”

Russia’s air transport agency’s first claims that the plane had to go in a different direction after a bird hit it made people in Baku very angry.

It was going to land in Grozny, which is the capital of Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya. Aliyev said that air defense steps for Grozny were only announced after the plane had been “shot from the ground.”

“If there was a danger to Russian airspace, then the captain of the plane should have been informed straight away,” he said.

As well, he asked why the plane was sent hundreds of kilometers across the Caspian Sea to the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan for an emergency landing.

“Why it was directed to Aktau; we have no information,” he said.

Azerbaijan says that early findings of its investigation show that a Russian air defense missile hit the plane by chance.

Russia has started its own criminal investigation, but it hasn’t said if it agrees with what Baku said.
The plane’s black boxes have been sent to Brazil to be looked at.