Russia’s Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday that two Russian anti-aircraft missiles had exploded several meters away from an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that crashed last year, killing 38 people on board.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet was flying from Baku to Grozny in the republic of Chechnya on Dec. 25 when it disappeared from radar near Russia’s Caspian Sea coast before crashing later near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Russian officials had offered conflicting explanations for the disaster, initially suggesting that poor visibility or a possible bird strike was to blame, and later saying air defense systems were targeting Ukrainian drones in the area.
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They exploded, perhaps via self-destruct, roughly at a distance of 10 meters [33 feet]. Thus, the aircraft was damaged not predominantly by direct warhead impact but rather by missile fragments […]
No, not self destruct. That is how the missile works! It explodes near a target and the shrapnel makes it very likely that multiple critical systems are hit. The same happened to that Malaysian plane over eastern Ukraine in 2014, Mr Putin!
Is this admission from Putin a kind of gesture/show of good faith towards a closer alliance ?
That’s literally how anti-air missiles work.
So they admit that
“two Russian anti-aircraft missiles had exploded several meters away from an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet”
… but these missiles have launched themselves?
but these missiles have launched themselves
You are describing the initial phase of the flight of a surface to air missile pretty accurately here. The missile launches itself into the air by expelling high velocity gases out of its rear end.
That is good to know, but the person above (I think) is suggesting that the missiles being automated doesn’t change the attribution of blame
Even an automated system has to be activated by someone who will then bear the responsibility for any automatic actions of said system.
Well then
No, no one launched any missiles. The passenger jet was poking the Russian missiles and caused them to explode. Simple mistake, really.
Ah, ok, so glad you could clarify that!
It was debris from the missiles that caused it. Not the missiles themselves, cyka blyat.
Azerbaijan is like Turkey. An autocratic regime let into NATO as strategical interest.
Azerbaijan is NOT part of NATO. They are part of NATO’s partnership for peace, like 18 other non-NATO countries (such as Austria, Switzerland etc), but that is not the same as membership.
But yes they are hardly a democracy even though they call themselves as such and the entire region is a hotbed of strategic interests of different countries first and foremost of Russia and Iran
It is whatever you say it is.
