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Azerbaijan has revealed on Tuesday that Moscow had promised to identify and punish those responsible for the downing of Azerbaijan Airlines plane that Baku says was shot at by Russian air defences before crash landing in Kazakhstan on December 25.
Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor said in a statement that Russia — which has not confirmed that one of its air defence missiles hit the plane — had informed Baku that “intensive measures are being carried out to identify the guilty people and bring them to criminal responsibility.”
Read Also: Putin Apologises For Azerbaijani Plane Crash, Mum On ‘Complicity’
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Saturday, apologised for the “tragic” downing of an Azerbaijan plane in Russian airspace, but refused to blame his country for the crash that has so far killed 38 people and injured several others.
Russia has come under intense criticism, especially from Ukraine, which alleged that Russia had a hand in the crash that happened on December 25.
Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak said Russia must be held responsible for the crash.
Azerbaijan’s transport minister, Rashad Nabiyev, said the plane was subjected to “external interference” and damaged inside and out, as it tried to land in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya.
“All the survivors without exception stated they heard three blast sounds when the aircraft was above Grozny,” Nabiyev said.
The plane is thought to have come under fire from Russian air defence systems before being diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, where it crashed.
Putin’s apology may have also made room for Russia’s allegation that Ukraine may have been responsible for the crash as it accused Ukraine of launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Head of Russia’s civil aviation agency Dmitry Yadrov said the situation in Grozny was “very complicated” at the time and a closed-skies protocol had been put in place.
