Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday, admitted that his country's air defence was working when an Azerbaijani Airlines plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, breaking the Kremlin's silence as speculation mount that Russia may have accidentally shot the plane.
Putin called his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, apologising that the incident took place in Russian airspace while stopping short of saying Russian air defence shot the plane.
Aliyev had emphasised to Putin that the plane was hit by outside interference from Russia, saying it wanted those responsible held accountable.
The phone call between the allies came three days after the Embraer 190 plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan.
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