Plane crash: After plane crash: Kremlin chief Putin apologizes

After the passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan with 38 deaths, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the incident. “Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident taking place in Russian airspace,” the Kremlin said in Moscow after a telephone conversation between the two.

Accordingly, Putin also stated that at the time the Russian air defense system was deployed against Ukrainian drone attacks. The plane coming from Baku was supposed to land in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus. However, Putin did not say so clearly that the Russian anti-aircraft defense had hit the plane with a missile.

Putin “once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery,” the Kremlin said. During the conversation, it was noted that the Azerbaijani passenger plane repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. “At the same time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, with Russian air defense repelling these attacks,” the Kremlin said.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board flew over the Caspian Sea despite its damage. It crashed while attempting to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan. 29 people survived, who are also important witnesses.

A little later, Putin also phoned Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The Kremlin press service said the two presidents expressed their condolences to each other over the Russian and Kazakh deaths. Both sides therefore expect an “objective and transparent” investigation.

Zelensky also speaks with Aliyev

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj wrote on Platform X that he had also spoken to Aliyev and expressed his condolences. Russia must give explanations and stop spreading disinformation. Photos and videos clearly showed the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage, which strongly suggested that the plane had been hit by fragments of an anti-aircraft missile.

The Kremlin’s statement said that Russian investigators had opened a case for violating air traffic safety rules. “The initial investigative measures are underway and civil and military specialists are being interviewed.”

At around the same time as the statements from Moscow, EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas called for a rapid, independent international investigation. Reports that Russian fire may have caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane were strongly reminiscent of flight MH17, the EU foreign policy chief wrote on platform Anti-aircraft missile fired. All 298 people on board died.

Investigators from Azerbaijan in Russia

According to the Kremlin, two employees of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office are in Grozny, where they worked with representatives of the Russian side. Investigators from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are also continuing their work at the crash site near Aktau, it said.

The Azerbaijani government had previously spoken publicly for the first time about using weapons against the passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan. Damage to the wreckage and witness statements suggested that the aircraft had sustained external damage. This happened over the original destination airport of Grozny in Russia.

“The investigation will clarify what type of weapon the external influence was used,” said Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev in Baku, according to the Azerbaijani state news agency Azertag. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has suspended flights to ten Russian cities for security reasons. Individual airlines from other countries also temporarily canceled some connections to Russia because of the unclear risk.

Many questions from Baku to Moscow

Azerbaijani Minister Nabiyev listed other questions for Moscow. After the damage, the plane flew over Russia’s Makhachkala airport, he said. Investigators would have to clarify whether an emergency landing was approved or rejected there. It also needs to be clarified why the aircraft’s GPS positioning was disrupted.

The head of the Russian aviation authority Rosawiatsiya, Dmitry Yadrov, said that the pilots had been offered several alternative Russian airports. But they wanted to fly over the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan. That was her decision. Azerbaijani media cast doubt on this account.

Propaganda video shows Santa Claus being shot down

Against the background of the plane crash, a Russian propaganda video about the shooting down of the Western Santa Claus by anti-aircraft defenses in the Moscow night sky caused horror, especially abroad. You can see Santa bringing “gifts” to the Russians on New Year’s Day in his carriage: rockets and cruise missiles, and a NATO symbol is also attached to a weapon. Then Santa sees a Russian anti-aircraft missile, curses and explodes as fireworks appear in the sky.

In the video, the Russian Santa Claus Father Frost (Ded Moros) and a member of the anti-aircraft defense team appear relieved at the destruction of the Western intruder in an operations room. “That’s it, target destroyed,” the soldier says to Ded Moros, who then replies: “We don’t need anything strange in our sky.”

Because the almost unanimous clip was published in Russian Telegram channels by propagandists and warmongers in the wake of the plane crash, there was criticism on social networks. There were complaints about the trivialization of Russian air defense and the mockery of the victims. According to the Ostorozhno Novosti portal, the actor Dmitry Melnikov, who portrays the soldier, explained that there was no connection and that the video was recorded in the fall. However, he did not want to name the person who commissioned the expensively produced advertising clip about anti-aircraft defense. The video ends with the best New Year wishes for Russians.