Despite the tragic crash of an Azerbaijani aircraft, Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations have been developing successfully, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“In spite of that, our interests, mutual interests are similar or very close in many areas. Most of all, this concerns trade and economic relations. Despite all the nuances of that tragedy I have just mentioned and certain things related, connected to it, in spite of that, our trade and economic relations are developing, they are developing successfully,” Putin said at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday.
Trade has already grown 16% this year, he said.
“This is a very good indicator. Owing to your attention to this issue, our humanitarian relations have always been on a high level,” Putin said.
For its part, Russia “will do everything to maintain such dynamics,” he said.
Putin said he was hoping that Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation “would not just be restored but also continue” in the allied spirit.
Ukrainian drone in skies among causes of AZAL plane tragedy
Russian air defense missiles did not hit the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane directly in December 2024, but exploded a few meters away from it, RuVladimir Putin said.
“Now, in general, we can already talk about the causes of this tragedy. It is related to several circumstances. The first is that there was a Ukrainian drone in the skies. We were tracking three drones at once, which crossed the border into the Russian Federation,” he said at the meeting.
“The second cause is the technical failures of the Russian air defense system itself. The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane, if that had happened, it would have collapsed on the spot, but they exploded – maybe it was self-destruction – a few meters away, about ten meters away,” he said.
“The hit occurred, most likely, by fragments of the missiles themselves, rather than mainly by projectiles, and that is why the pilot perceived it as a collision with a flock of birds, which he passed on to Russian air traffic controllers, and it is all recorded in the so-called black boxes,” Putin said.
On December 25, 2024, an AZAL Embraer 190 aircraft en route from Baku to Grozny crashed near Kazakhstan’s Aktau. There were 62 passengers and five crewmembers on board the plane. According to the Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry, 29 people survived.
Ilham Aliyev has thanked Vladimir Putin for personally controlling the investigation into causes of the crash.
“I would like to thank you for personally controlling this situation. You and I have repeatedly exchanged views, and members of our team stay in constant contact. You are personally controlling progress of the investigation, and we have had no doubt that it will sort things out in an impartial manner. Therefore, I would like to thank you again for deeming it necessary to highlight the issue at our meeting,” Aliyev said at the meeting.
He particularly thanked Putin for “providing detailed information about the tragedy of December last year when an Azerbaijani plane crashed.”
“You and I made contact immediately back then. As you remember, on that tragic day, I was going to a meeting in St. Petersburg, and, as soon as I was notified, I called you from the plane and we exchanged condolences. I also asked you to tell the colleagues at the meeting that I would be unable to participate in the informal CIS summit for objective reasons,” Aliyev said.
