Baku's tough political will shakes up Russia: aviation expert on Azerbaijani plane crash

He shared his views on Espreso TV.

"In reality, to quickly determine and get answers to such a question, there must be political will. We are pleased that political will exists. The political will of the leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan quite sharply sobered up both the Russians and Kazakhstan. Because, in my opinion, there was an attempt to start playing along with the Russians," he said.

According to Hennadii Khazan, it was Azerbaijan's firm stance that influenced Kazakhstan to adopt the "right position."

"And after the president of Azerbaijan took a firm stance against the Russians, Kazakhstan immediately seemed to think about it, in my opinion, and adopted the right position. The position that says: let's conduct an investigation, and based on its results, draw conclusions, instead of thinking about how to classify this work, as requested by the president of the Russian Federation and that lover of young goats from a certain part of Russia," the aviation expert noted.

Plane crash in Kazakhstan

On the morning of December 25, a passenger plane crashed in Aktau, located on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. The plane had initially departed from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, heading toward Grozny in Chechnya (Russia), moving west of the Caspian. The crash claimed the lives of 38 people.

Preliminary investigation data showed that the cause of the crash in Aktau was a Russian surface-to-air missile.

Azerbaijani Airlines and the Minister of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan, Rashad Nabiyev, cited "external influence" as the preliminary cause of the plane crash in Kazakhstan.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby stated on December 27 that the U.S. had detected signs indicating the Azerbaijani Airlines plane might have been shot down by a Russian air defense system.

The Russians claim that on that morning, Grozny, Mozdok, and Vladikavkaz were allegedly attacked by Ukrainian drones, and "Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks."

On December 29, it became known that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev publicly accused Russia of shooting down the Embraer E190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL).