DUSHANBE, October 9. /TASS/. Russia is providing every assistance to the investigation into the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

"Of course, we have been providing every assistance, as agreed, to the probe [into the AZAL flight crash] now at its final stages," the Russian leader assured Aliyev.

Also, Putin offered his condolences anew to the families of those killed in the deadly accident. The Russian president recalled that he had originally apologized that the flight crashed in the Russian skies.

The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190, en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25, 2024. The plane carried 67 people, including 62 passengers, mainly citizens of Azerbaijan, as well as nationals of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and five crew members. Thirty-eight people were killed.