ReutersAzerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to take responsibility for the Christmas Day plane crash that killed 38 people.
The plane is believed to have been fired upon by Russian air defense systems as it attempted to land in Chechnya, before being diverted to Kazakhstan, where it crashed.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani president for the downing of the plane in Russian airspace, but did not accept responsibility.
Aliyev accused Moscow of initially “covering up” its involvement in the crash. Accepting Putin's apology, he said Russia “must admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital of Grozny on December 25 when it is believed to have been fired upon.
Flight J2-8243 was forced to divert from Chechnya and crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 on board.
Most of the passengers on the flight are from Azerbaijan, others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation experts and others believe the plane's GPS was affected by electronic jamming and then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air defense missile blasts.
But Aliyev said that in the days after the incident, “Russian agencies put forward versions (of events) about the explosion of some gas cylinder,” which “clearly shows that the Russian side wants to cover up the matter,” according to a transcript of an interview with state media.
He also said that some in Russia have latched onto the theory that the plane was struck by birds. Aliyev described both theories as “stupid and dishonest”.
The president of Azerbaijan admitted that the plane was shot down inadvertently, but said that in the first three days after the crash “we only heard absurd versions from Russia”.
Baku made a number of demands to Moscow on Friday over the incident, he said, only one of which – an apology – had been met so far.
On Saturday, Putin said the “tragic incident” occurred when Russian air defense systems repulsed Ukrainian drones, and expressed his “deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims.”
The Russian president admitted that the plane had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.
At the time, however, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were “attacked by Ukrainian drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia should “stop spreading disinformation” and that the damage to the plane's fuselage was “very reminiscent of an air defense missile strike.”
The Kremlin readout did not directly acknowledge that the plane had been hit by Russian missiles.
Aliyev said Baku demanded that Russia “admit its guilt”, punish those responsible and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.
Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The president of Azerbaijan said: “Nobody would have thought that in a country friendly to us, our plane would be fired upon from the ground.”
His remarks came as Azerbaijan paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the downed plane.
Three crew members – captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – received distinctions for landing the plane in a way that allowed 29 people to survive, although it led to their own deaths.