Azerbaijan–Russia bilateral relationship

Aliyev presses Putin over passenger aircraft downing

Azerbaijan's Pres. Aliyev escalated a row with Russia's Pres. Putin over the downing of a passenger jet last week. Aliyev claims (and U.S. investigators concur) that Russia accidentally shot the jet down, and Putin already extended an apology for the incident; however, he refused to explicitly accept responsibility for it.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed Russia accidentally shot down a passenger aircraft and that U.S. investigators agreed. Putin apologized for the incident without explicitly accepting responsibility.