The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, urged the Kremlin regime to punish those responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane near Grozny.
In an interview with AzTV, he stated that Russia should compensate both Azerbaijan and the passengers and crew members.
First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan.
Second, it must acknowledge its guilt.
Third, those responsible must be punished, held criminally accountable, and the Azerbaijani state, as well as the affected passengers and crew, must receive compensation.
Aliyev added that the first of these conditions was fulfilled yesterday, December 28, when Putin called him.
The final cause of the crash will be known after the investigation of the black boxes, emphasized Ilham Aliyev.
However, according to him, the main version is quite justified and is based on the fact that the aircraft sustained "external damage on Russian territory." He acknowledged that the plane was not shot down intentionally.
One aspect that saddened and surprised us was that Russian official structures suggested theories about an explosion from a gas cylinder.
This openly indicated that the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue, which, of course, does no one any credit.
The Chechens shot down the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.
The Embraer aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed on December 25 in Aktau, Kazakhstan. 38 people died, with a total of 67 on board.
According to Euronews and Reuters, citing sources in the Azerbaijani government, the crash was caused by a Russian air defense system.
A missile was launched at the plane during a drone attack on Grozny. The missile exploded near the aircraft and damaged its fuselage.
The crew of the damaged aircraft requested an emergency landing, but they were not allowed to land at any Russian airports.
The Chechens shot down the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.