Azerbaijan announced on Monday that Russia has committed to investigate, identify and punish anyone responsible for the fatal December 25 crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Moscow has assured Baku that “intensive measures are being taken to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.”
Azerbaijan Airlines J2-8243 had diverted across the Caspian Sea, from its destination in Chechnya to western Kazakhstan before it went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 persons.
On Sunday, Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, accused Russia of shooting down its passenger plane last week, leaving 29 survivors, out of 67 persons on board.
Speaking to state television, Aliyev said the plane had been damaged by shooting from the ground in Russia, alleging that Russia had lied about the cause of the disaster.
He said, “Our plane was shot down by accident,” Aliyev said, adding that the plane had come under electronic jamming and had then been shot at while it was approaching the southern Russian city of Grozny.
“Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia,” Aliyev said, citing statements in Russia that attributed the crash to birds or the explosion of some sort of gas cylinder.
“We witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter,” he said.
Aliyev said he wanted Russia to accept it was guilty of downing the plane and to punish those responsible.
Russia had denied involvement in the crash, warning that speculating that Russia is involved is wrong.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday, apologised to Aliyev for Wednesday’s “tragic incident”, which occurred in Russian airspace but did not say that Russia had shot down the plane, only noting a criminal case had been opened.
Putin and Aliyev have held a few telephone calls since the incident occurred, the Kremlin said in a statement.