Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon talk to each other attending a signing ceremony following their talks at the Palace of the Nation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon talk to each other attending a signing ceremony following their talks at the Palace of the Nation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Russia’s air defenses were responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner in December that killed 38 people in his first admission of blame for the crash.
Putin made the statement at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where both are attending a summit of the former Soviet nations.
The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Dec. 25, 2024, while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defenses, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard.
Putin has to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident†but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. Aliyev, meanwhile, for trying to “hush up†the incident
