Aliyev's non—arrival in St. Petersburg is "a sign of a new aggravation of relations"

Non-arrival of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in St. Petersburg for the CIS summit is a sign of a new aggravation of relations with Russia, political analyst Ugur Mammadov believes.

"And with a high degree of probability it will be timed to coincide with the final report of the commission investigating the causes of the tragedy with the AZAL plane near Aktau," the political scientist writes in the telegram channel "Ugur Mammadov".

As the expert noted, it is already obvious that the immediate cause of the death of the aircraft and 38 people flying on it is illegal external interference when landing in Grozny.

"It is also obvious that the Russian military could not deliberately aim to shoot down the Azerbaijani plane. That is, the whole question is how to qualify the actions of Ukraine, whose drones attacked Grozny airport. If it hadn't been for this attack, the plane would have been alive. Did Ukraine, when it blew up the car of a Russian general in Moscow, think about the safety of the surrounding residents, including children and women? A pure terrorist attack. But Ilham Aliyev, aggravating relations with Moscow because of the lost plane, did not say a single bad word to Kiev," Mammadov stressed.

The AZAL passenger plane operating the Baku — Grozny flight crashed on December 25, 2024 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. There were 67 people on board, of whom 38 died, 29 survived. According to preliminary data, the crash occurred due to external physical intervention.

In November, Vice Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan Maksat Kaliakparov said that Kazakhstan will provide data on the investigation of the AZAL plane crash by the end of the year. According to him, preliminary conclusions were presented three months after the tragedy, but the examinations are continuing. He stressed that the issue is extremely serious, and at the moment it is impossible to name the exact date of completion of the investigation.

"The investigation is ongoing. More in-depth work and complex examinations are being carried out now. I can't guarantee the timing now, but we will provide information at the end of this year," Kaliakparov said.

Today, on December 22, AZAL Vice President Ilham Amirov told reporters that the investigation of the AZAL plane crash could last for years.

"As for the full report of the State Commission of Kazakhstan, according to international laws, it is usually noted in regulatory documents regarding incidents anywhere in the world that it is recommended to complete the investigation within a year after the incident. Here, a condition is not set, but a recommendation is given. Because the results are very important. Subsequently, they are distributed to all world aviation organizations so that such incidents do not recur in the future," he said.