During his visit to Tajikistan on October 9, Putin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Putin was asked whether he and Aliyev were able to “outline a way out of the crisis in bilateral relations, or whether a certain chill remained.”
The illegitimate president of the Russian Federation responded that there was no crisis in the relations between the countries, since trade and economic ties between Russia and Azerbaijan “have grown significantly.”
“What kind of crisis of interstate relations is this? I would say that it was most likely such a crisis of emotions. And it’s clear why. Because we were faced with a very difficult event, a tragic event – the death of the plane and its passengers. Therefore, we had to calmly sort it out. We needed time to sort it out,” Putin said.
Putin added that he hopes that the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan have “turned this page” and will be able to implement “really big plans.”
Context
Passenger Embraer 190 of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) crashed on December 25, 2024 near Aktau (Kazakhstan). 38 people died; on board, as Report writes, there were citizens of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation. According to Ukrainian and Azerbaijani sources, the plane was shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile near Grozny.
The Russian Federation later apologized to Baku for the “tragic incident.” Aliyev rejected Russian versions of the causes of the disaster and noted that Moscow “wanted to hush up the issue.” In July 2025, Minval.az published evidence of the shelling of the plane on the orders of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In a conversation with Aliyev on October 9, Putin did not admit the guilt of the Russian Federation. According to him, the plane crash was allegedly due to the fact that there were Ukrainian drones in the sky. The head of the Kremlin mentioned as an excuse that the Russian military did not hit the airliner itself, and two missiles exploded about 10 meters from it, so the defeat occurred, “most likely due to fragments of the missiles themselves.”
Putin added that the Russian side allegedly offered the crew of the downed Azerbaijani plane to land in Makhachkala, but he himself decided to fly outside the Russian Federation.
