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Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Monday once again blamed Russian officials for the plane crash that killed 38 people on Christmas Day and called for them to be punished.
“I can say with confidence that the blame for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation,” Aliyev said on Monday at a meeting with family members of the crew killed in the plane crash.
“We demand justice, we demand punishment for those responsible, we demand complete transparency and human[e] behavior,” the Azerbaijani leader added.
Aliyev’s fierce criticism signals a rift in previously friendly relations between Moscow and Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, which has not taken sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Azerbaijan is one of Moscow’s largest trading partners in the South Caucasus, and the level of trade between the two countries — particularly in fossil fuels — has increased as the European Union has tried to wean itself off of Russian gas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the disaster in a phone call with Aliyev, saying air defenses were operational in the area at the time of the crash, but stopped short of accepting responsibility for the downing.
The apology was one of three demands Baku made of Russia, the other two being an acknowledgment of guilt and compensation to both the state and to victims.
Aliyev again on Monday accused Russian government bodies of trying to “hush up the incident and defend absurd versions” of how the incident occurred. Russia initially suggested the crash had been caused by a flock of birds.
Azerbaijan sent the airliner’s black boxes for analysis to Brazil, where experts began analyzing the data Jan. 3.
The civilian airliner had been flying from Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechen Republic on Dec. 25. After passengers reported hearing a blast, the plane diverted hundreds of kilometers from its planned route and crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan; 38 people died while 29 survived.
