BAKU, December 26. /TASS/. Azerbaijan and Russia continue dialogue, despite the tension in bilateral relations following the AZAL plane incident, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said.
"Following the incident with the Azerbaijani plane, relations with Russia became strained. Despite this, dialogue and mutual contacts between our countries continued," he told a briefing on the results of 2025.
According to the minister, the meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Vladimir Putin of Russia on the sidelines of the meeting of the Council of the CIS heads of State in Dushanbe on October 9 marked a major step toward normalizing bilateral relations. "This meeting and the Russian sides’ statements - the acknowledgement of the fact that the plane was damaged as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces and subsequent apology - have played a major role in easing tensions and resuming dialogue," he added.
The Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer 190 passenger jet, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed on December 25, 2024, near the Kazakh city of Aktau. There were 67 people on board: 62 passengers and five crew members, citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Thirty-eight people died. Thirty-eight people died in the crash. There were 16 Russian nationals among the passengers. Nine of them survived.