First elements of response? Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with his Azerbaijani counterpart this Saturday, the Kremlin said, a few days after the crash of an Azerbaijani company plane in Kazakhstan which left 38 dead. The Russian president spoke of Russian air defense fire at the time of the incident with the Azerbaijan Airlines airliner.
The Russian president admitted, in a telephone interview with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev, that “the Azerbaijani airliner had tried several times to land at Grozny airport. At the same time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, and Russian air defenses repelled these attacks.”
VideoAzerbaijan Airlines: behind the crash in Kazakhstan, the shadow of a Russian missile
He did not say whether the plane was hit by these defenses. He, on the other hand, apologized “for the fact that this tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace”, without recognizing the responsibility of his army.
“The Head of State stressed that the multiple holes in the fuselage of the plane, the injuries suffered by the passengers and crew (…) as well as the testimonies of the flight attendants and surviving passengers confirm the evidence of external physical and technical interference”, for its part indicated the Azerbaijani presidency in a press release summarizing the telephone conversation between Ilham Aliev and Vladimir Putin.
“The Kazakh government commission responsible for investigating all the details of the incident will call on Russian, Azerbaijani and Brazilian experts (…) This work, carried out on the territory of Kazakhstan, will be objective and transparent,” also said indicated the Russian president, according to a press release from the Kremlin.
A half-hearted apology
The plane which was to connect Baku to Grozny, capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya, deviated from its trajectory, before crashing and catching fire in still unclear circumstances near Aktau, a port on the Caspian Sea located in western Kazakhstan. Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board the plane were killed when the plane crashed and caught fire.
Since Wednesday's disaster, suspicion has focused on Russia, which may have accidentally shot down the plane. The White House spoke of a Russian air defense strike and several Western experts believe that the images showing a fuselage riddled with holes suggest such a strike. On Friday, the Kremlin refused to make any comments “before the conclusions of the investigation”.
This Saturday, the European Union called for a “rapid and independent” investigation into the crash. The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said on over Ukraine in 2014. “Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” she added.
