Putin apologises for plane crash, without saying Russia at fault

The Kremlin released a statement on Saturday noting Putin had spoken to Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev by phone. "(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the statement said. Prior to Saturday, the Kremlin had not yet commented on the crash. But Russian aviation authorities had said the situation in the region was "very complicated" due to Ukrainian drone strikes on Chechnya. Aviation experts and others in Azerbaijan believe the plane's GPS systems were affected by electronic jamming and it was then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air defence missile blasts.