Russia Will Do Everything Necessary To Provide Compensation For AZAL Aircraft Accidents

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia would do everything necessary to compensate for the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane crash in Kazakhstan late last year.

"Of course, everything necessary in cases like this, in tragic cases like this, will be carried out by the Russian side in terms of compensation," President Putin said in a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, according to the Kremlin, reported by Anadolu October 9.

Opening talks in the capital Tajikistan, where the two leaders will participate in the Council of Heads of State of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) meeting on Friday, President Putin apologized for the incident that occurred in Russian airspace.

He said Russia provided all possible assistance for the investigation of a plane crash in December last year, and would also provide a legal assessment of the actions of all officials associated with it.

President Putin noted that the investigation was nearing completion, and further linked the crash in part to the presence of Ukrainian unmanned aircraft in Russian airspace on the night of the incident.

The Russian president named the second factor in the crash a "technical failure" of his country's air defense system, explaining two missiles fired by Moscow at the time did not hit the plane directly, but exploded several meters from it.

"So, the damage did occur, but not especially from the warhead, but most likely from the missile debris itself," he said.

Meanwhile, President Aliyev thanked President Putin for personally overseeing the accident's investigation, stating they were "undeniably" the investigation would resolve everything objectively.

Previously, Baku and Moscow entered a "difficult time" in bilateral relations, as described by the Kremlin in July, especially after an AZAL plane crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, leaving 38 of 67 passengers and crew on board dead.

President Putin spoke by telephone with President Aliyev three days after the accident, expressed his condolences and apologized for the incident that occurred in Russian airspace.