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Azerbaijan Air Crash Update -- Putin Apologizes?! [1]

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Date: 2024-12-28  

Never thought I would ever see the words “Putin” and “apologizes” in the same sentence, and admittedly he doesn’t actually acknowledge that a Russian air defense system near Grozny was the real cause of the crash, but here we are from the BBC:

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has apologised to the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan over the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace, in which 38 people were killed - but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible.

In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the "tragic incident" had occurred when Russian air defence systems were repelling Ukrainian drones.

…

The Kremlin released a statement on Saturday noting Putin had spoken to Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev by phone.

"(President) Vladimir Putin apologised that the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," it said.

In the rare publicised apology, Putin also acknowledged the plane had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.

…

Prior to Saturday, the Kremlin had refused to say whether it was involved in the crash with authorities saying they were awaiting investigation results.

But Russian aviation authorities had earlier in the week said the situation in the region was "very complicated" due to Ukrainian drone strikes.

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