A single, tragic incident on Christmas Day 2024 has undone years of careful diplomacy, leaving the trust between Russia and Azerbaijan in fragile tatters. President Vladimir Putin’s admission of fault has done little to immediately repair the profound damage.
Putin confessed that Russian missiles accidentally downed an Azerbaijani passenger plane, killing 38, while his forces were targeting Ukrainian drones. He called the event a “tragedy,” but the word was insufficient to bridge the gap created by ten months of silence.
The years of building economic and political ties were undermined by the perception in Baku that Moscow was not being honest. The lack of transparency following the crash of the Baku-to-Grozny flight was seen as a betrayal of their partnership.
The fragility of the trust was laid bare when President Ilham Aliyev met the admission with an accusation of a cover-up. His charge that Russia tried to “hush up” the affair shows that the foundation of their relationship has been critically weakened.
Putin’s offer of compensation and a legal review is an attempt to rebuild this fragile trust. However, the incident serves as a powerful lesson in how quickly years of diplomatic progress can be erased by a single act of negligence followed by a period of obfuscation.