Azerbaijan Compels Putin To Take Responsibility For Civilian Jetliner Shootdown Incident


October 11, 2025 
By Eurasianet


(Eurasianet) — State-aligned media in Azerbaijan is lauding the country’s leader, Ilham Aliyev, for making his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin blink first during a long-running diplomatic staredown over the shootdown of a civilian Azerbaijani jetliner last December.

After months of dodging, Putin finally acknowledged that Russian air defenses were responsible for causing the airliner to crash in late December, killing 38 passengers and crew aboard. Putin made the admission on October 9, during a one-on-one meeting with Aliyev on the sidelines of a CIS summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, claiming, implausibly, that he only found out details of the incident a few days before.

The Kremlin leader attributed the mishap to “technical failures in the Russian air defense system,” adding that two anti-aircraft missiles “exploded, perhaps self-destructing, a few meters away” from the airliner as it flew over Russian airspace in Chechnya.

In what for Putin passes as an apology, he went on to say “everything required in such tragic cases will be done by the Russian side in terms of compensation, and the actions of all officials will be legally assessed,” according to a Azerbaijani governmentstatement.

Aliyev, who has in recent months been increasingly biting in his criticism of Russia’s refusal to take responsibility for the incident, accepted Putin’s olive branch, “expressing gratitude for considering it necessary to address this issue at our meeting.”

He went on to indicate that bilateral relations, which experienced a flash freeze over the shootdown, can now start returning to normal.

One of the main complaints aired by Aliyev during the spat over the shootdown was that Moscow did not regard Baku as an equal partner. By compelling Putin to take responsibility for the shootdown, Aliyev’s hardline approach appears to have succeeded in shifting the power dynamic governing the bilateral relationship, forcing the Kremlin to acknowledge Azerbaijan as a partner, not treat it as a subservient state.

A commentary published October 10 by the Caliber.az outlet lauded Aliyev for standing up to Putin by exhibiting a combination of “firm principle and a willingness to go all the way, balanced by a pragmatic and carefully calculated approach.”

“President Ilham Aliyev can celebrate yet another success,” the commentary stated. “Once again, he has achieved the desired result and upheld the national dignity of our country.”

Eurasianet

Originally published at Eurasianet. Eurasianet is an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on the most important developments in the region. A tax-exempt [501(c)3] organization, Eurasianet is based at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, one of the leading centers in North America of scholarship on Eurasia. Read more at eurasianet.org