Azerbaijan demands Russian accountability for E190 downing
Azerbaijan is planning to sue Russia for the shooting down of its Embraer E190 aircraft over Grozny if Moscow does not accept responsibility, reports "Azeri-Press" (APA). According to the agency, evidence is currently being gathered, facts and testimonies are being collected, and preparations are underway to present the case in an international court.
"Azerbaijan's conditions and what it wants are clear, and they have been announced at the highest level. (...) Moscow must openly admit its guilt and take responsibility. Otherwise, Baku is ready for further steps," writes APA.
"Biased approach" of Moscow
The Azerbaijani authorities are outraged that, even after the publication of the preliminary report by the Kazakh Ministry of Transport on the crash of the "Azerbaijan Airlines" (AZAL) aircraft on December 25 in Aktau, the Russian side continues to display a "biased and one-sided approach" to the incident. They assert that this is evidenced by the position of Rosaviatsiya, which stated that the report does not contain conclusions about the causes of the event.
Rosaviatsiya pointed out that it was the crew who provided the controllers with the theory of a collision with birds and the explosion of a gas cylinder onboard, and then made the decision to land in Aktau, even though Russia offered airports in Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody. Moreover, Rosaviatsiya emphasized that Moscow had not received any "foreign objects" that damaged the plane for its own examination.
At the same time, the Russian agency's publication omitted other details from the report, including that the air traffic controller at the Grozny airport announced the closure of airspace under the "Carpet" plan after the aircraft had already been damaged. Rosaviatsiya also omitted the fact that the report found no evidence of a bird strike or an explosion of an oxygen cylinder.
Moscow wants to sweep the matter under the rug
According to APA, there is a belief in Azerbaijan that Moscow wants to sweep the matter under the rug by blaming the aircraft crew, and plans to use the same tactic as in the case of the Malaysian Boeing that was shot down over separatist-controlled Donbas in 2014 by the Russian "Buk" air defense system. 298 people died in that incident, and although the Russian Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine, the court in The Hague reached different conclusions.
Currently, Russian authorities claim that when the AZAL aircraft was hit, Chechnya was defending against an attack by Ukrainian drones. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan claims that the plane was fired upon by a Russian "Pantsir-S" air defense system.
A source in the Azerbaijani government informed Reuters that they have a piece of the relevant missile, which was retrieved from the wreckage of the aircraft and identified during an international examination. Furthermore, there is information that fire was opened from the area of a military unit in the Grozny town of Khankala.
The Embraer E190 aircraft of AZAL, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed on December 25 in the Aktau region. 38 people died, and 29 were injured.
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, blamed Russia for the disaster and demanded that those responsible be punished. He also expressed outrage at Moscow's attempts to "cover up the case" and conceal the fact that the aircraft was fired upon by the Russian air defense, using "absurd theories" of a bird collision and a gas cylinder explosion on board.
