Azerbaijan Accuses Russia of Passenger Jet Crash
Azerbaijan's relations with Russia have never seemed to get worse, and now seems to reach boiling point. Last December's tragic crash of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, which killed 38 people on board, has brought some new accusations from the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev addressing an alleged Moscow "cover-up".
In an emotional meeting with survivors and families of the victims, President Aliyev said preliminary investigations showed that the passenger jet had been hit by Russian air defenses. According to Azerbaijan's state news agency AZERTAC, the airspace over Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechnya region, was closed only after the incident—a lapse Aliyev described as preventable and negligent.
Flight J2-8243, which took off from Baku to Grozny, faced its ill fate on December 25, 2024. It had an emergency landing in Aktau of Kazakhstan but before that, it had already gained catastrophic damage. Thirty-eight people out of 67 passengers died in this crash, including citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Video and photographic evidence from the crash site showed perforations in the body of the aircraft consistent with damage from shrapnel or debris. That has fueled accusations that the plane could have been mistaken for a hostile Ukrainian drone, given active air defense systems that Russia had deployed in the area.
Aliyev's Blistering Critique
In a rare, televised address in Russian, not Azerbaijani, Aliyev launched an uncompromising attack on how Russia had dealt with the incident: "I can say quite clearly that blame for the deaths of Azerbaijani citizens in this accident lies with representatives of the Russian Federation, and it will be just to demand the due punishment of individuals responsible and maximum transparency.".
In turn, Aliyev accused Russia of the lack of coordination between its armed forces and civilian aviation authorities, with due precautions the tragedy could have been prevented. Criticism from him reached as far as "absurd versions" of the crash that were being circulated and which he said had caused "surprise, regret and rightful indignation" in Azerbaijan.
Russia's Response
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Azerbaijan in the days following the crash but, however, had stopped short of the responsibility. The Kremlin said air defenses in Grozny were turned on at the time of the crash because of an attack by Ukrainian drones. Azerbaijan has rejected this explanation, however. Aliyev called for "an independent, impartial and transparent" investigation.
Russia's investigative committee has opened a criminal case, but critics, including Aliyev, have voiced skepticism about Moscow's readiness to prosecute its own officials.
It also involved international cooperation in the investigation into what went wrong. The country's air force finished the work of pulling information from the black boxes of the Embraer 190 jet manufactured in Brazil. Specialists from Azerbaijan traveled to join Brazilian specialists in processing this information, subsequently passing it all on to the Kazakh authorities. Kazakhstan, where the forced landing occurred, has been in close cooperation with Azerbaijan over this.
The diplomatic repercussions of this tragedy have already begun to manifest. The demands for justice and accountability by Azerbaijan over the incident will further deteriorate its relations with Russia, already under scrutiny for being complicit in the crash. Aliyev's words served to drive the point home of his government's determination to get to the bottom of things, no matter how uncomfortable that might prove for Moscow.
"I am sure that in the near future we will learn the initial results, and everything will fall into place," Aliyev said, emphasizing the need to make those who are guilty of the tragedy answer before the law.
While ongoing investigations determine whose fault this crash is, it might just turn into a pivotal event in Azerbaijani-Russian relations and, for that matter, the stability of the region, let alone international aviation safety.