Has Vladimir Putin been forced to eat humble pie? Earlier today, the Russian president felt compelled to issue an apology – of sorts – after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan on 25 December, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board. The plane had been travelling from the Azeri capital Baku to Grozny, in the Russian region of Chechnya, when it was hit by air defence systems, forcing it to crash-land hundreds of miles off course in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Speaking on the phone to the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, Putin called the crash a ‘tragic incident’ and expressed his condolences to the injured and families of the victims. Shedding some light on what is supposed to have happened, a readout of the presidents’ conversation issued by the Kremlin stated that ‘at that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks’.
Today’s phone call, with its half-apology, will have been bruising enough for his ego
In Russia’s version of events, then, the plane was unintended collateral damage in attempts to defend Grozny against an incoming Ukrainian drone attack.