President Vladimir Putin, in his most candid admission to date, admitted to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that Russia played a role in the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that killed at least 38 people.

Putin told Aliyev when they met on the sidelines of a summit in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on October 9 that local Russian air defense systems had been deployed against Ukrainian drones and were to blame for the crash-landing of the flight from Baku to Russia’s Grozny in December 2025 in Kazakhstan, after it was rerouted from southern Russia.

“The two missiles that were launched did not hit the jet directly,” Putin said, adding that if they had, “it would have crashed on the spot, but, they exploded, perhaps as a self-destruction measure, a few meters away.”

“The Russian side will, of course, do everything possible to provide compensation and give a legal assessment of the actions of all responsible officials,” Putin said, giving no concrete details.

Putin added that he had learned the cause of the crash only two days prior his meeting with Aliyev, saying it would “take some more time” to complete the investigation.

Aviation expert Vadim Lukashevich noted that the explosion of missiles near the aircraft, rather than a direct hit on the fuselage, is “normal behavior” for air defense missiles.

“This was not a self-destruction that occurred hundreds of meters away from the aircraft, but rather the standard activation of the missiles’ proximity fuses,” Lukashevich claimed in a Facebook post.

Putin had previously issued an apology to Aliyev last year for the “tragic incident,” but he wouldn’t admit fault on Russia’s side, which led to a 10-month diplomatic row between Moscow and Baku, which continued to demand compensation and accountability.

Russian authorities, meanwhile, carried out arrests of ethnic Azerbaijanis this summer as part of an investigation into alleged crimes. In response, Azerbaijani security forces also detained several Russian nationals.

Moreover, Aliyev skipped Russia’s annual World War II Victory Day celebrations, a major snub of Putin in the eyes of many.

During the October 9 meeting, Putin expressed “hope” for restoring cooperation between the two countries. Aliyev, in turn, thanked the Russian leader for investigating the cause of the crash saying he appreciated his “personal control” over the situation.

“The messages we are sending today to our societies will meet a positive response,” Aliyev said.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, independent political expert Shahin Hajiyev said the level of hostility between Russia and Azerbaijan is now likely to ease.

“It can be seen from Ilham Aliyev’s statements during the meeting with Putin that he is satisfied with the Russian side’s position and expects the problems in bilateral relations to be resolved,” he said.

Hajiyev added that he also expected pressure on Azerbaijanis working in Russia to ease and that those arrested earlier in the year would be released.

However, Elkhan Shahinoglu, a political analyst at the Atlas Research Center in Baku, questioned Putin’s technical explanations, adding that the lengthy period of tension had already damaged cooperation between the two countries.

“If Putin points out that the investigation is not yet complete, why does he claim that the missile did not hit the aircraft?” Shahinoglu asked in his post on Facebook.

“If Putin had said what he said now in the first days after the tragedy, relations would not have become so strained,” he added, noting that “the normalization of relations will depend on how Putin fulfills his promise.”