Russian President Vladimir Putin has finally (after nearly a year of silence, denial, and speculation) told Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that Moscow will officially compensate Azerbaijan for its part in the accidental downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet last December. This admission is honestly huge, especially since the event has strained relations between the two former Soviet republics for months now, making this a genuine attempt to turn the page.
The commitment was made during the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a full ten months after the tragic crash. The whole incident revolves around an Azerbaijani Airlines flight that was heading from the capital, Baku, to the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024. The jet, an Embraer 190, was carrying 67 people (62 passengers and five crew members) when it was mistakenly hit by Russian air defence fire. This is awful for everyone involved, especially the families, as 38 people were killed in the crash, per Aljazeera.
