The Azerbaijani president accused Moscow this Sunday, December 29, of wanting to hide the causes of the crash in Kazakhstan.
The Azerbaijani president accused, this Sunday, December 29, Russia of having wanted to hide that the plane of the national company which crashed on Wednesday, December 25 in Kazakhstan had come under fire from Russian territory, and demanded a public apology from Moscow.
Ilham Aliev estimated that the various versions of the facts put forward by Russia after the crash “clearly show that the Russian side wanted to cover up the affair”. “Admitting (one's) guilt, issuing a timely apology to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about it, these are all measures and steps that should have been taken,” he said. – he said on national television, according to the state agency Azertag.
According to him, Baku made three demands on December 27: an apology, recognition of guilt and punishment of those responsible. “The first was heard on Saturday (with apologies from Vladimir Putin, editor’s note). I hope that the other conditions will be accepted too,” he insisted.
“Hit by accident”
Since Wednesday, the day this plane crashed in Kazakhstan after failing to land in Grozny in southern Russia, suspicions have been growing around a Russian anti-aircraft defense shot.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Kremlin statement, apologized to Ilham Aliev on Saturday for the incident, acknowledged shooting but did not admit that the plane was hit by mistake by the Russian army. He also claimed that the area was then under attack from Ukrainian drones.
The Azerbaijani president publicly pointed out Russia's “guilt”, during an interview on national television, while noting that the “plane was hit by accident”.
The aircraft was “made uncontrollable by military means of electronic jamming” in the sky over Grozny and “its tail was also seriously damaged” by shots from Russian soil, he said on television, according to the Azertag state agency.
