Azerbaijan’s leader on Monday accused Moscow of carrying out a “cover up” over a passenger jet crash last month that claimed 38 lives, as relations sour between the two neighbors.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev says Vladimir Putin’s apology isn’t enough, in a confrontation that shows Moscow’s waning influence over former Soviet territories.

Azerbaijan Airlines said that the crash of its plane in Kazakhstan on 25 December was caused by physical and technical external influence. Source: European Pravda with reference to the airline's statement on X (Twitter) Details: In the released statement,

One of the victims of a deadly plane crash in Kazakhstan was buried on Friday. Ramazan Filiev, 26, was one of 38 people killed when Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 was diverted for reasons still unclear on Wednesday and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan.

In the crash’s aftermath, Azerbaijan has unleashed rare and stinging criticism of Russia, with the country’s president saying Moscow’s response has caused “surprise, regret and rightful indignation.”

The extraction of flight data from the Brazilian-made Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan last month was completed at a lab run by Brazil's air force, according to a statement released by the entity on Monday.