The first negotiations in a year between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took place in Dushanbe.
Putin began the meeting with what has long been demanded in Azerbaijan — the acknowledgment of Russia's involvement in the crash of the Azerbaijani airliner in December of last year. The Russian president claims that two air defense missiles exploded a few meters from the plane.
Putin arrived in Tajikistan for a state visit the day before. It was also reported that in Dushanbe, where a meeting of the CIS heads of state is scheduled, he would meet with the president of Azerbaijan — the first since October of last year.
As noted by Interfax, in September of this year, Putin and Aliyev "briefly saw each other" in China at the SCO summit, but did not communicate fully at that time.
According to official information, Putin and Aliyev have not spoken on the phone for a long time. On October 7, Aliyev called the Russian president to congratulate him on his birthday, but before that, they last spoke in March.
In the year that has passed since the last meeting between Putin and Aliyev, relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have significantly deteriorated.
The first diplomatic scandal between the countries occurred after an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane crashed in Kazakhstan in December 2024 while on a flight from Baku to Grozny. 38 people died in the crash, while 29 managed to survive.
The aviation disaster occurred during the Russian air defense's response to an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Caucasus regions. Azerbaijani authorities stated that the plane crashed "as a result of external influence," but Russia officially did not acknowledge its involvement in the crash of the airliner.
In July of this year, Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan had not received a reasonable response from Russia and intended to appeal to the international court. He drew parallels between the investigation of the incident involving the Azerbaijani plane and the crash of the Malaysian Boeing over Donbas in 2014, and also recalled the court in The Hague, which established Russia's responsibility for its crash.
"We know what happened and can prove it, and we know that Russian officials know what happened. The fuselage of the plane was full of holes. There were two people inside the plane injured by shrapnel. Therefore, the idea that it was a Ukrainian drone that could have shot down the plane is completely absurd. This is a story for kindergarten," Aliyev said.
On Thursday, Putin suggested starting the meeting with Aliyev with this "most sensitive topic." For the first time, Putin confirmed that the Azerbaijani plane was damaged due to the operation of Russian air defense and also apologized for the tragedy occurring in the sky over Russia.
At the same time, Putin emphasized that the two missiles fired by the Russian missile defense system at the Ukrainian drone did not directly hit the civilian aircraft but exploded a few meters from it, allegedly hitting it with their debris.
"The reason lies in the technical failures of the Russian air defense system itself. The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane; if that had happened, it would have fallen on the spot, but they exploded — maybe it was self-destruction — a few meters away, about ten meters," the Russian president claims (quote from Interfax).
According to him, the plane was damaged "not by lethal combat elements, but most likely by the debris of the missiles themselves, and that is why the pilot perceived it as a collision with a flock of birds, which he reported to the Russian dispatchers."
Putin also told the president of Azerbaijan that he allegedly received this information only "the day before yesterday" when he called Moscow in anticipation of the meeting with him and asked if there were any additional details regarding the investigation into the crash of the AZAL plane.
In response, Aliyev thanked Putin for personally overseeing the investigation into the causes of the Azerbaijani plane crash. He did not make any critical remarks this time.
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The second diplomatic scandal between Russia and Azerbaijan flared up after the arrest of representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg in June 2025.
At that time, Russian security forces arrested a group of Azerbaijanis in connection with murders from the early 2000s, during which two suspects died during detention. Russian authorities claimed they died of heart failure, while Azerbaijan insisted that the cause of death was severe beating.
In response, Baku demonstratively detained eight Russians, accusing them of drug smuggling and cyber crimes.
Additionally, Azerbaijan closed the "Russian House" in Baku, accusing its employees of espionage, arrested the director and editor-in-chief of the "Sputnik Azerbaijan" publication (part of the state media group "MIA Russia Today"), and released from custody Russian ex-judge Elena Khakhalova, whose extradition Moscow sought. Azerbaijani authorities also reduced the stay of Russian citizens in the country to 90 days per year.
At the meeting with Putin on Thursday, Aliyev stated that there was good dynamics in Russian-Azerbaijani relations, in his opinion.
"This year, relations have developed successfully, including in trade turnover, as you have already mentioned, there is good dynamics in the development of trade turnover, as well as in all other areas — there has been no slowdown or rollback anywhere," the head of Azerbaijan said (quote from Interfax).
The meeting between the two leaders lasted about an hour, according to news agencies.
