The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the "tragic incident" involving the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. However, the dictator did not acknowledge the downing of the aircraft,

Putin apologizes to Azerbaijani President for tragic plane crash in Kazakhstan, amid allegations of Russian involvement.