Putin met with Aliyev: full text of the conversation

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe. EADaily publishes the full text of the conversation between the leaders of the two countries.

Vladimir Putin started the conversation.

— Dear Ilham Heydarovich!

We recently — briefly, though, but still — saw each other in Beijing. We had talked on the phone several times before.

I would like to start our meeting with the most sensitive topic — the aviation tragedy that occurred in our sky. And even then, in our first telephone conversation, I not only apologized for the fact that the tragedy occurred in the skies of Russia, but also expressed my most sincere condolences to the families of the victims. I would like to repeat all this, resume it and say that, of course, as agreed, we are providing all possible assistance to the investigation.

The investigation is coming to an end, and now, in general, we can talk about the causes of this tragedy, this catastrophe. It is associated with several circumstances.

The first is that there was a Ukrainian drone in the sky. We were flying three such drones at once, which crossed the border of the Russian Federation at night on the day of the tragedy.

The second reason is the technical failures of the Russian air defense system itself. And the two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane (if that had happened, it would have collapsed on the spot), but exploded, maybe it was self-destruction, a few meters away, somewhere about 10 meters away. And so the defeat occurred, but mainly not by striking combat elements, but most likely by fragments of the missiles themselves. That is why the pilot took it as a collision with a flock of birds, which he passed on to the Russian dispatchers, and all this is recorded in the so-called "black boxes". It was also suggested to him, and this is also in the "black boxes", it is clearly audible, to land in Makhachkala, but he decided to return to the home airport, and then to Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, the fact remains.

I have just told you the reasons for the tragedy. All this is in the documents after a thorough analysis of the technical characteristics of what was happening, and reconciliation right by the seconds of the results of the so-called "black box".

We are with You also discussed this topic later. Of course, everything that is required in such cases, in such tragic cases, will be done by the Russian side on compensation, and a legal assessment of the actions of all officials will be given.

Of course, these words related to this tragedy, aimed at supporting, moral support of families, in such cases do not solve the main problem — not to bring back to life people who died as a result of the tragedy.

But our duty, I repeat once again, and we agreed on this from the very beginning, is to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true reasons. But it takes some time. In order to finally put an end to it, it will probably take some more time. But in general, mostly I I have outlined to you what I was introduced to literally on the eve of our meeting, yesterday, the day before yesterday. To be honest, I even called Moscow last night and asked if there were any additional details. I've told you almost everything I know. This is the first part.

The second. I would like to note that, despite this, our interests and mutual interests in many areas coincide and are very close. And first of all, of course, it concerns trade and economic ties. Despite all the nuances associated with this tragedy, which I have just mentioned, and some things that have arisen in connection with this, despite this, trade and economic ties have been developing and are developing successfully. Last year we added about 6 percent, and this year we have already added more than 16 percent of our trade turnover. This is a very good indicator.

Thanks to your attention to this topic, our humanitarian ties have always been at a high level. But we'll talk about it now. And we, "a", are grateful to you for this, and "b", of course, for our part, we will do everything to maintain this dynamic.

And, of course, the situation in the region, the situation in general on international platforms — our foreign ministries have always worked very closely with each other. I hope that this cooperation will not just be restored, but will continue in the spirit of our relations, in the spirit of our alliance. We never forget about this, we remember the agreement that was signed not so long ago, and for our part we will do everything to implement all its main provisions.

Thank you.

Then Ilham Aliyev joined the conversation.

— Thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for the meeting. We are with As you noted, we had a short conversation with you in Beijing, and also just two days ago I I called you in connection with your birthday. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you once again and wish you, your loved ones, and the friendly people of Russia all the best.

And of course, special thanks for this detailed information in connection with the tragedy of December last year, when the plane of Azerbaijan Airlines crashed. We are with You were immediately in contact. As you remember, on this tragic day I was flying to a meeting in St. Petersburg and right from the plane, when I was informed about this, I called you and we expressed our condolences to each other. I also asked you to convey to our colleagues who also participated in this event that for objective reasons I will not be able to participate in the informal CIS summit.

I would also like to thank you for personally keeping this situation under control. And how are we with You have repeatedly exchanged opinions, as well as members of our teams are constantly in contact, you personally control the progress of the investigation, and we had no doubt that it would objectively sort everything out. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude once again that you considered it necessary to highlight this issue at our meeting.

And, as you noted, not only trade and economic relations, but also in all other areas, relations have been successfully developing this year. As you noted, there is a good dynamic in the development of trade turnover. Also, in all other directions, there was no slowdown or rollback anywhere. On the contrary, those "road maps" that we have with Approved by you, successfully implemented.

The Russian-Azerbaijani intergovernmental commission was also held relatively recently, where the co-chairs discussed in detail a wide range of issues, and not only trade and economic.

And of course, today is a good opportunity to go over the agenda again. It is quite extensive and positive. So I thank you once again for this information and I am sure that the messages we are sending to our societies today will also be positively received.