On Thursday, October 9, President Vladimir Putin belatedly admitted that Russian air defenses had previously shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines plane. The admission of guilt came during a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, where a summit with former Soviet nations was being held. The crash happened nearly a year ago on December 25, 2024.
According to BBC News, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 took off from an airport in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and was scheduled to land in Grozny, the capital of the Russian Region of Chechnya, before it crashed in western Kazakhstan. After the incident, many countries of the international community accused Russia of being the cause of the crash, and Aliyev directly called out Russia for unintentionally shooting down the plane. At the time, Russia did not take accountability. Although Putin expressed his condolences to Aliyev, he stopped short of admitting that Russian air defenses were at fault. The Kremlin even called the crash a “tragic incident” that occurred in Russian air space, but not a mistake for which it held responsibility.
According to Putin, Russian air defenses fired a missile targeting a Ukrainian drone, but it instead exploded near the Azerbaijan Airlines flight in western Kazakhstan. Ukrainian drones had previously carried out strikes inside Russian airspace on a regular basis. Putin claimed that the missile that struck the Azerbaijan Airlines flight, as well as two other missiles that exploded no more than ten meters away, were “technical malfunctions.” According to AP News, in an effort to express his apologies, Putin added, “the Russian side will obviously do everything to provide compensation and give legal assessment to all responsible officials’ action.”
The controversy over the incident has worsened ties between Azerbaijan and Russia. Relations between the two countries were further exacerbated by the deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis in a Russian city and the arrests of Russians in Azerbaijan. However, throughout the war with Ukraine, Azerbaijan has become increasingly more important for Russian foreign trade. One significant reason for this is because the country is allied with Turkey, Russia’s key economic partner. Additionally, Azerbaijan acts as a transport corridor for Russia’s trade with Iran. Putin’s confession has thus been seen as a part of an attempt to warm previously unstable ties with Azerbaijan. According to CNN, Putin even stated, “I hope that our cooperation not only will be restored, but continue in the spirit of our relations, the spirit of our alliance.” Aliyev thanked Putin for personally investigating the root cause of the crash.
Throughout the rest of the summit, Putin, just like he did with Aliyev of Azerbaijan, attempted to enhance relationships with other countries at the summit. Focusing mainly on central Asian countries, he spoke with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon, the host of the summit,praising the country’s tight military and security ties. “Russia firmly intends to further strengthen its strategic partnership and alliance with your countries, and deepen mutually beneficial political, economic, and humanitarian ties,” he said, addressing the leaders of four other central Asian countries.
While this admission of guilt has allowed for the 38 families of those who died in the plane crash to get an explanation, the action only serves to reflect Putin’s motive to build up his power-hungry agenda. The confession comes with tighter alliances with countries that would be strategic for Russia’s war with Ukraine along with Russia’s status on the global stage. As tensions deescalate between Russia and Azerbaijan, Russia will obtain a greater presence in Central Asia.
