Aliyev again accused the Russian authorities of the crash of the Azerbaijani plane
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with the relatives of the dead crew members and the surviving flight attendants of the Embraer plane of the AZAL airline. On December 25, 2024, he was following a flight from Baku to Grozny and crashed in Aktau (Kazakhstan).
"Attempts of Russian state bodies to cover up the incident and defend ridiculous versions cause surprise, regret and righteous indignation. The blame for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster lies with the representatives of Russia. And we demand justice, punishment of the guilty, full transparency and human behavior," Aliyev said.
He also noted that "if Grozny had taken timely measures to close the airspace and there had been coordination between the armed forces and civil services of Russia, this tragedy could have been avoided." According to the President of Azerbaijan, the process of deciphering the black boxes of the plane is underway.
Earlier, Ilham Aliyev said that the plane was damaged as a result of shelling from the ground on the territory of the Russian Federation. He demanded that Moscow admit guilt, punish the guilty and pay compensation. The President of Azerbaijan also noted that approximately 10 days before the accident, a similar incident occurred near the city of Grozny, when the plane belonging to AZAL was forced to turn around midway. However, according to him, this time the crew of the plane did not receive a warning, and the reasons for this should be established during the investigation.
Prior to that, during a telephone conversation with Aliyev, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, apologized, however, without admitting guilt in the shelling of the airliner, but only due to the fact that "a tragic incident occurred in the airspace of Russia." In the speech, he mentioned the work of Russian air defense equipment, but did not admit that it was precisely this that caused the plane to crash.
The Telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU published a transcript of the pilots' talks with the dispatcher at the airport. The recording made it possible to calculate the place where the Azerbaijani plane was allegedly shot down. According to the channel, this happened over the Naur district of Chechnya, where several military units are stationed, including those equipped with air defense equipment.
According to the investigation of the "Agency" publication, on the day of the disaster, the Pantsir system was used to repel the drone attack. This can be evidenced by the publication of the Chechen opposition channel NIYSO, which published a photo of the fallen projectile. The CIT experts interviewed by the "Agency" noted that this is the acceleration block of "Pantsyria". The publication writes that this system was installed to protect the military base in Khankala, and could also be additionally transported to Chechnya after the first successful attacks by Ukrainian drones.
Kateryna Stepanenko, an expert at the American "Institute for the Study of War" (ISW), called the last statement quite probable, since the Kremlin "regularly pacified Kadyrov throughout the war." At the same time, she reminded that the head of Chechnya reported on the construction of a new military infrastructure, so the Ministry of Defense could ensure its protection from the air. The international investigative community InformNapalm notes that "gifts" to Kadyrov in the form of Pantsir complexes may be the result of many years of negotiations and a demonstration of loyalty.
"Even if the systems are formally handed over to Akhmat, their use is hardly completely autonomous. Most likely, the calculations are managed by seconded specialists. But they could have appointed curators from Kadyrov, who could, by their orders or haste, significantly increase the chances of air defense system operators making a mistake," InformNapalm experts argue.
Chechen opposition blogger Islam Belokiev shared a different opinion. He claims that air defense systems in the republic are managed only by officers seconded from the Ministry of Defense.
"Kadyrov does not have similar systems at his disposal. They simply do not trust him. If Prigozhin (the owner of PMC "Wagner") was armed with heavy equipment, aviation and serious artillery, Kadyrov will not be given such weapons," writes Belokiev.
The impossibility of using anti-aircraft defense by subordinates of the head of Chechnya blogger also explains the low level of qualification of Kadyrovtsev.
Political scientist Dmitry Dubrovsky, in turn, also blames the Kremlin. He notes that the decisions on further actions, "including the direction of the already shot down plane to the airfield on the other side of the sea in the hope that it will sink there, were taken in Moscow."
There were 67 people on board the Embraer 190, 42 of them citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 citizens of Russia, 6 citizens of Kazakhstan, and 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan. It is reported that 29 passengers survived.
