The Azerbaijani prosecutor's office said today that Russia has promised to identify and punish those responsible for Wednesday's crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane that Baku claims was shot down by Russian fire, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said that the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, had told him that “intensive measures were being taken to identify the perpetrators and bring them to criminal responsibility“.
Moscow also promised to “conduct a full, thorough and objective investigation“ of the incident in addition to investigations underway in Kazakhstan, where the plane crashed, the Azerbaijani prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Russia has not admitted responsibility for the crash, which killed 38 people, despite Azerbaijan's request.
According to the Azerbaijani prosecutor's office, Moscow has nevertheless "provided the necessary support to prosecutors sent to Grozny", the capital of Chechnya, where the plane unsuccessfully tried to land twice before crashing in Aktau, across the Caspian Sea.
Investigations are also underway at the scene of the accident "with the participation of professional investigators and experts from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Brazil", the latter country being the manufacturer of the "Embraer 190" aircraft.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said yesterday that the passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines, which was flying on the Baku-Grozny route, was “shot“ over Russian territory.
He accused Moscow of trying to cover up its responsibility for the crash and demanded a public apology and compensation.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev and acknowledged that air defenses had opened fire on the day of the crash because of an attack by a Ukrainian drone, but did not admit that the plane had been hit.