Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he hoped Russia and Azerbaijan had closed the "negative page" after the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane last year, which marked the beginning of a period of worsening relations between the two countries, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The investigation into the crash of the Azerbaijani plane is almost complete and the situation is clear. Experts are finalizing the last details to complete all procedures, Putin said, quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS. "The investigation is currently in its final phase. In general, everything is clear, there are still some details, subtleties that the experts need to shape accordingly," he added.
Yesterday, Putin explained to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said two Russian anti-aircraft missiles had exploded near the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in December. Putin said the missiles were fired after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace, Reuters reported.
After describing how the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan was shot down, Putin promised compensation.
The Russian president met with Aliyev at the "Kohi Somon" government residence in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, where a Russia-Central Asia summit and a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit were taking place yesterday and today. The two presidents last met in October 2024.
Flight J2-8243 from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Grozny, crashed on December 25 last year near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to have attacked several targets. 38 people were killed. Aliyev then publicly criticized Moscow's initial response, which he said was aimed at covering up the causes of the incident.