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29 December, 13:55
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Azerbaijan denounces Russia’s decision to drop probe into deadly plane crash

Azerbaijan has denounced Russia’s decision to end the criminal investigation into the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger airplane by Russia air defences in December last year.

Of 67 on board, 38 were killed as the Embraer 190 aircraft bound to Russia’s Chechnya was hit as it approached Groznyy on December 25 and crashed to the ground in Kazakhstan’s Aktaku city.

Addressing a press conference on 27 December, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said the decision by Russia’s Investigative Committee to drop the prove raised “very serious questions” in Baku.

“Russia sent a letter to Baku informing us of the termination of the investigation, which came as a surprise to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan formally replied with a note of protest, setting out its position in detail,” Bayramov said. Bayramov reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted in October that Russian air defences were responsible for the crash and promised compensations to the victims of the incident. “This was an important statement. We expect the process to be completed in line with the agreements reached during talks between the leaders of the two countries,” Bayramov said.

Later joint inquiries determined that the crash was not the result of a technical failure as claimed by Russia, but was caused by an external factor, namely the aircraft being struck by a missile. This finding was validated through a multinational investigation that included experts from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Brazil, with oversight and participation from the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The downing of AZAL passenger plane triggered a diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in June called on Russia to claim responsibility for the crash and to pay compensations to the victims of the killed passengers. During the meeting with Aliyev in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on October 9, Putin promised that everything “will be done by the Russian side on compensation and a legal assessment of all official things will be given.”

Meanwhile, according to interim findings of Kazakhstan’s Transport Ministry into the Azerbaijani passenger plane crash, the damage to the aircraft “was presumably caused by the impact of warhead elements”. However, the investigators were unable to establish the origin of the warhead.