Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has told his Azerbaijani counterpart that Moscow will compensate Azerbaijan for its part in accidentally downing an Azerbaijani passenger plane last year, which had damaged relations between the two countries.

The Russian leader made the commitment on Thursday while meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 10 months after the Azerbaijani Airlines crash that killed 38 of the 67 people on board and strained ties between the neighbours.

Azerbaijani authorities had said the jet, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, on December 25, 2024, was mistakenly hit by Russian air defence fire. The pilots then attempted an emergency landing in western Kazakhstan, but the plane crashed near Aktau, across the Caspian Sea.

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