President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on Monday excoriated Russia for seeking to duck duty within the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet final month, doubling down on a unprecedented disagreement with the Kremlin that has highlighted Russia’s lack of affect in a lot of the previous Soviet Union.
Assembly with the 2 surviving flight attendants and with kin of the workforce participants who died within the crash, Mr. Aliyev mentioned Russian efforts “to hush up this incident” led to “marvel, remorseful about and rightful indignation” in Azerbaijan.
The initial investigation into the Dec. 25 crash that killed 38 other people made it transparent, he mentioned, that had the Russian army and civilian government coordinated correctly, “this tragedy will have been avoided.” He reiterated his statement, which has been subsidized up by way of pictures from the scene and Western exams, that the airplane crashed after being hit by way of Russian air defenses.
“I will say with self assurance that the blame for the truth that Azerbaijani voters died on this crisis lies with representatives of the Russian Federation,” Mr. Aliyev mentioned. “We call for justice, we call for the punishment of the responsible, we call for whole transparency and first rate habits.”
In a departure from protocol, Mr. Aliyev made the ones televised feedback in Russian, reasonably than in Azerbaijani; analysts described that call as each a nod of appreciate to the Russian-speaking kin of the deceased pilots, in addition to an indication that Mr. Aliyev sought after to be heard in Moscow.
Whilst President Vladimir V. Putin apologized to Mr. Aliyev on Dec. 28 for “the tragic incident” that “came about in Russian airspace,” he stopped wanting accepting Russian duty for it.
Within the aftermath of the crash, pro-government voices in Azerbaijan unleashed uncommon and withering complaint of Russia, regardless of the shut dating between Mr. Aliyev and Mr. Putin, two authoritarian leaders who had increasingly more discovered common ground in confronting the West.
Farid Shafiyev, the chairman of the government-funded Middle for Research of Global Members of the family in Baku, Azerbaijan, mentioned in a telephone interview that Russia’s “imperial vanity” used to be on show in its obfuscation of the instances of the crash.
Regarding Russia’s failure to recognize its culpability, Mr. Shafiyev mentioned: “They nonetheless glance down on a lot of these former Soviet international locations.”
Russia has been in large part silent at the crash in contemporary days. There used to be no remark from the Kremlin on Monday, and Russian state media supplied most effective sparse protection of Mr. Aliyev’s cope with.
Mr. Shafiyev mentioned that Moscow’s muted reaction might replicate its self assurance in its commanding place around the post-Soviet global. However he added that this self assurance is also out of place, pointing to the lovely cave in of the pro-Russian regime in Syria final month as proof of the way temporarily its fortunes can exchange.
“For the instant, they are able to really feel very at ease that they’re nonetheless one of those giant energy, however over the years, that may exchange,” he mentioned.
Around the former Soviet Union, Russia’s grip assists in keeping appearing indicators of pressure. Azerbaijan’s archenemy, Armenia, now not sees Russia because the guarantor of its safety and is looking to the West and to Iran for support. In Central Asia, China is ascendant, as the previous Soviet republics there view Russia as weakened and distracted by its war in Ukraine.
And simply final week, some other crack emerged in Transnistria, the pro-Russian breakaway area of Moldova. The Jan. 1 halt of gasoline to the area from Russia, a outcome of the struggle in Ukraine, has raised questions about Russia’s skill to handle a devoted outpost on Europe’s southeastern edge.
By means of comparability, Azerbaijan had looked to be a extra certain tale for Moscow. Mr. Putin made a two-day state discuss with in August, whole with pictures that confirmed him enjoyable in shirtsleeves with Mr. Aliyev. The top of Russia’s overseas intelligence company visited in September, casting Azerbaijan as an best friend in countering Western efforts to undermine “inside political steadiness in our states.”
However final month’s crash has illuminated the bounds of that partnership — and precipitated Mr. Aliyev’s putting willingness to assail his nation’s way more robust neighbor to the north.
Flush with fossil fuel revenues and brimming with self assurance after defeating Armenia in a long-running battle in 2023, the autocratic Mr. Aliyev, 63, is seizing at the aftermath of the crash to shed any semblance of being depending on Mr. Putin.
The Azerbaijan Airways Embraer 190 jet with 67 other people on board crashed in a ball of black smoke and orange flames at the shores of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan after failing to land at its vacation spot, the southern Russian town of Grozny. Mr. Putin advised Mr. Aliyev 3 days later that Russian air defenses had been struggling with Ukrainian drones within the space because the jet approached, in keeping with a Kremlin commentary.
Mr. Aliyev mentioned on Dec. 29 that this rationalization and Mr. Putin’s restricted apology wouldn’t be enough. Russia “should recognize its guilt,” he mentioned, and punish the ones accountable. In Monday’s televised assembly, Mr. Aliyev went additional, mentioning that “there are very critical problems right here that represent a criminal offense.”
The airspace above Grozny used to be most effective closed after the airplane used to be fired upon, Mr. Aliyev mentioned.
“If there used to be a risk to Russian airspace, the captain of the airplane will have to were right away knowledgeable about it,” Mr. Aliyev mentioned.
Mr. Aliyev repeated his declare {that a} Moscow-based aviation authority that in most cases investigates airplane crashes in a lot of the previous Soviet Union, together with Azerbaijan, couldn’t be depended on to hold out a good investigation — some other putting rebuke to Mr. Putin’s authorities.
Kazakhstan has agreed to ship the airplane’s black containers to Brazil, the rustic the place the airplane producer Embraer is founded.
Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, advised a Kazakh newspaper in an interview printed Friday that sending the black containers to Brazil used to be the one method “to verify a good and impartial investigation.”
Kazakhstan is some other former Soviet republic that has sought, cautiously, to distance itself from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. The Azerbaijani information media has praised Kazakhstan for exhibiting “impartiality and objectivity” in investigating the crash reasonably than serving to Russia to hide it up.
Mr. Aliyev mentioned the black containers may provide an explanation for why the airplane crossed the Caspian Sea to crash-land in Kazakhstan, reasonably than make an emergency touchdown at a better airport in Russia.
Russia’s best aviation respectable mentioned the airplane’s pilot selected to land in Kazakhstan. On Dec. 29, Mr. Aliyev posited the idea that Russian air visitors controllers will have redirected the airplane with the expectancy that it might fall into the Caspian, through which case “makes an attempt to hush up the problem” would were “a hit.”
Mr. Aliyev additionally mentioned on the time that Azerbaijan would be expecting Russia to pay reimbursement to the sufferers. However in a telephone interview on Monday, Joshgun Nesibli, the brother of one of the vital flight attendants at the airplane, mentioned he used to be interested by one thing else.
“Why do I want reimbursement from Russia? I don’t want it,” mentioned Mr. Nesibli, whose sister, Hokuma Aliyeva, died within the crash. “I want them to ask for forgiveness to the folk, even supposing this is not going to carry again our sister.”
Milana Mazaeva, Oleg Matsnev and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.