Coming up on two years since the accidental shootdown of an Azerbaijani civilian jetliner by Chechen air defense forces, Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev has finally buried the hatchet with his Chechen counterpart, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov traveled to Baku on October 10 to offer a ritualized apology. According to a transcript of remarks during the face-to-face meeting, Kadyrov extended “on my own behalf and on behalf of the entire Chechen people, my deepest condolences regarding the Baku-Grozny plane crash in December 2024.”
“This is a shared grief,” he added.
The shoot-down of the AZAL Airlines flight as it approached the Chechen capital Grozny resulted in the deaths of 38 of the 67 passengers and crew aboard. Chechen air defense forces reportedly mistook the jetliner for a Ukrainian drone. After being damaged by anti-aircraft fire, the plane limped across the Caspian Sea before crashing in Kazakhstan.
Russia for months refused to take responsibility for the tragedy, sending bilateral relations into a deep freeze. Putin eventually offered a halting apology in October 2025 that eased tension.
Even so, Azerbaijani-Russian ties have remained prickly in 2026. In August, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused Russian state-aligned media outlets of disseminating “provocative, insulting and threatening statements” designed to discredit the Azerbaijani government.
Kadyrov’s visit to Baku appeared to be motivated by a Kremlin desire to get bilateral ties firmly back on track. The Chechen warlord is a Putin loyalist whose October 10 apology can be seen as an extension of Kremlin policy.
In the days immediately after the shootdown, Kadyrov reportedly tried to telephone Aliyev, but the Azerbaijani president refused to take the call. Kadyrov’s recent visit indicates that Baku is ready to fully reengage diplomatically. The readout offered by Aliyev’s office noted that the two discussed “prospects for cooperation in various fields.”
The Kremlin has an abiding interest in smoothing out wrinkles in relations with Azerbaijan, given Baku’s role as a conduit for north-south trade between Russia and Iran. Ensuring the steady flow of north-south trade is seen as essential in both Tehran and Moscow for keeping their respective war efforts going in the Gulf and in Ukraine.
The day before Kadyrov’s visit to Baku, Aliyev met with Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to explore possibilities to expand trilateral trade.