President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told the Azerbaijani leader, Ilham Aliyev, in a phone call, “that the tragic incident took place in Russian airspace.”

The Kremlin has said that the Russian president "apologized for the tragic incident" and expressed his "deep and sincere condolences" to the victims' families.

On Christmas Day, a plane traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, crashed in Kazakhstan, killing over half of its passengers. Theories abound regarding why the plane made an emergency landing near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau.