Azerbaijan calls on russia to admit involvement in Embraer 190 crash and apologize

The Azerbaijani authorities expect russia to admit involvement in the crash of the Embraer 190 passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines, which crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 as a result of being hit by a russian anti-aircraft missile.

An unnamed source familiar with the investigation into the plane crash informed Reuters about this.

According to him, no one in Baku claims that russia opened fire on the passenger plane purposefully.

However, taking into account the established facts, the country's authorities expect moscow to admit that the russian military is to blame for the tragedy.

According to the Turan agency, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, Rasim Musabekov, said that russia should apologize for hitting the plane.

"The plane was shot down on Russian territory, in the sky over Grozny. And it is impossible to deny this. Those who did this must be held criminally liable, compensation must be paid for the deaths and injuries," Musabekov said.

According to him, the absence of the above steps from moscow will lead to a deterioration in relations between the countries.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Euronews informed, citing sources in the Azerbaijani government, that the Embraer 190 plane was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile fired from a russian air defense system.

And the Azerbaijani news channel AnewZ reported that the russians had banned the damaged plane from landing at three of their airports. Instead, they told the pilots to fly to Aktau in western Kazakhstan.

The Embraer 190 plane of Azerbaijan Airlines crashed at Aktau airport on December 25. It was flying from Baku to Grozny.

There were 67 people on board the plane: 62 passengers and five crew members. 39 people died.

We previously wrote that russian state media and pro-kremlin media are hiding information from russians that the Embraer 190 plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile.

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