The Russian leader’s phone call stopped short of acknowledging responsibility for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane.

By bne IntelliNews Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev for what he termed a 'tragic incident', three days after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane was forced to resort to a crash-landing in Kazakhstan that engulfed most of the aircraft in a fireball and killed 38 people.

Multiple shrapnel holes in the plane’s fuselage and its altitude at the time of incident contradict the bird theory. Azerbaijan accused Russia of hitting the passenger jet with a missile. The pilot did not decide to fly to Aktau;