Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday accused Russia of trying to escape responsibility for the downing of an Azerbaijani airliner last month, furthering a rare standoff with the Kremlin that has highlighted Russia's loss of influence in much of the former Soviet region. emphasized.
Mr Aliyev met with the two surviving flight attendants and the relatives of those killed in the crash and said Russia's efforts “to cover up this incident” had caused Azerbaijan “surprise, regret and righteous indignation”. said.
He said a preliminary investigation into the Dec. 25 crash that killed 38 people had shown that “this tragedy could have been prevented” if the Russian military and civilian authorities had worked together properly. Ta. He reiterated his claim, supported by footage from the scene and Western assessments, that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian air defenses.
“I can confidently say that the representatives of the Russian Federation are responsible for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster,” Aliyev said. “We demand justice, we demand punishment for perpetrators, we demand full transparency and decent behavior.”
In a departure from protocol, Aliyev made his televised comments in Russian rather than Azerbaijani. Analysts described the decision as both a sign of respect for the dead pilot's Russian-speaking relatives and a sign that Aliyev wants to be heard in Moscow.
President Vladimir V. Putin apologized to Aliyev on December 28 for the “tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace,” but stopped short of acknowledging Russia's responsibility for it.
In the aftermath of the crash, despite the close ties between Mr. Aliyev and Mr. Putin, two authoritarian leaders who have increasingly found common ground in their confrontation with the West, pro-government forces within Azerbaijan have The voice was unusual, and it provoked a stinging criticism of Russia.
Farid Shafiyev, director of the government-funded Center for Analysis of International Relations in Baku, Azerbaijan, said in a telephone interview that Russia's “imperialist arrogance” was reflected in its obfuscation of the circumstances of the crash.
“They still despise all the former Soviet states,” Shafiyev said, noting that Russia has not acknowledged its responsibility.
Russia has remained largely silent about the incident in recent days. There was no comment from the Kremlin on Monday, and Russian state media provided scant coverage of Aliyev's speech.
Shafiyev said the Russian government's muted response could be a sign of its confidence in its commanding position throughout the post-Soviet world. But he added that this confidence may be misplaced, pointing to the stunning collapse of Syria's pro-Russian regime last month as evidence of how quickly the country's fortunes can change.
“Right now, they may be very comfortable that they're still some kind of superpower, but that may change over time,” he says.
Throughout the former Soviet Union, Russia's dominance continues to show signs of strain. Azerbaijan's arch-enemy Armenia no longer sees Russia as a guarantor of its security and has turned to Western countries and Iran for support. In Central Asia, China has gained the upper hand as former Soviet states see Russia as weakened and distracted by the war in Ukraine.
And just last week, new rifts emerged in Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region, Transnistria. The suspension of Russian gas supplies to the region on January 1 in the wake of the Ukraine war has raised questions about Russia's ability to maintain loyal outposts on Europe's southeastern tip.
Azerbaijan, by comparison, appeared to be a more positive story for Moscow. Putin went on a two-day state visit in August, which included footage of him lounging in shirt sleeves with Aliyev. Russia's foreign intelligence chief visited in September and positioned Azerbaijan as an ally against Western efforts to undermine “our domestic political stability.”
But last month's selloff highlighted the limits of that partnership and fueled Mr. Aliyev's surprising willingness to attack his far more powerful northern neighbor.
The autocratic Mr. Aliyev, 63, rich in fossil fuel income and brimming with confidence after defeating Armenia in a long-running conflict in 2023, is using the aftermath of the accident to create an impression of dependence on Mr. Putin. I'm trying to get rid of it.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 passenger plane carrying 67 people failed to land in the southern Russian city of Grozny and crashed in a ball of black smoke and orange flames on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea coast. . Three days later, Putin told Aliyev that Russian air defense forces were engaging Ukrainian drones in the area as fighter jets approached, according to a Kremlin statement.
Aliyev said on December 29 that this explanation and Putin's limited apology were not enough. He said Russia “must admit its guilt” and punish those responsible. In a video conference on Monday, Aliyev went further, asserting that “there are very serious issues here that constitute a crime.”
Aliyev said the airspace over Grozny was closed after shots were fired at the plane.
“If there was a threat to Russian airspace, the captain should have been informed about it immediately,” Aliyev said.
Aliyev reiterated his assertion that the Moscow-based aviation authority, which typically investigates plane crashes in much of the former Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan, cannot be trusted to conduct a fair investigation. It was a shocking rebuke to the Putin regime.
Kazakhstan has agreed to send aircraft black boxes to Brazil, home to aircraft manufacturer Embraer.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an interview with a Kazakh newspaper published on Friday that sending the black boxes to Brazil was the only way to “ensure a fair and impartial investigation.”
Kazakhstan is also a former Soviet republic that has carefully distanced itself from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. Azerbaijani news outlets praised Kazakhstan for showing “impartiality and objectivity” in the crash investigation rather than aiding Russia in a cover-up.
Aliyev said the black boxes could explain why the plane crossed the Caspian Sea and crash-landed in Kazakhstan instead of making an emergency landing at an airport closer to Russia.
Russia's top aviation official said the plane's pilot chose to land in Kazakhstan. On December 29, Mr. Aliyev said that Russian air traffic controllers may have changed the direction of the plane in anticipation of it falling into the Caspian Sea, in which case the “attempt to cover up the problem” was “successful.” He proposed the theory that he would have done so.
Aliyev also said at the time that Azerbaijan expected Russia to pay compensation to the victims. But in a phone interview Monday, Joshgun Nesibri, the brother of one of the plane's flight attendants, said he had other interests.
“Why do I need compensation from Russia? I don't need it,” Nesibri said. Nesibri's sister, Khokuma Aliyeva, died in the accident. “I want the people to apologize, but this will not bring my sister back.”
Milana Mazaeva, Oleg Matsnev and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to the report.
