Experts say evidence in the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan points to a possible midair explosion, not an encounter with a flock of birds.

The crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane is horrific. We express our condolences to Azerbaijan,” the statement read. Sybiha noted that immediately after the plane’s crash, Russian media began spreading false information about the causes of the disaster.

Russian aviation authorities did not allow the plane to land in any of the multiple airports nearby, forcing the pilots to fly over the stormy Caspian Sea to try to land in the western Kazakh city of Aktau. The plane crashed close to Aktau airport.

"Since the start of the hostilities in Ukraine, Kazakhstan has been favoring the beginning of negotiations to achieve peace. I want to stress that we do not insist anywhere on our mediation and we ...

In this regard, Central Asian countries are now forced to strike a difficult balance between their long-standing relations with Russia and other large powers. While the region has historically relied on Russia for economic and security relationships,

After an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed in Kazakhstan, speculation mounted about why the plane went down and whether possible Russian air defense action may have played a role.

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.”

Astana has struck a happy medium between neither antagonising nor warming up to an increasingly belligerent Moscow, while simultaneously cultivating stronger commercial and cultural ties with Beijing

With President-elect Donald Trump expected to quickly try bringing an end to the war in Ukraine after taking office, I want to address the hoariest myth of all: It’s all the fault of an aggressive West.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday blamed the Russian war in Ukraine for the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan. "Russia's brutal war against Ukraine is affecting more and more innocent people - even outside Ukraine. This is shown by the air disaster in Aktau, which must be fully investigated," Scholz wrote on X.

Initial indicators suggest oil exports from Kazakhstan were unchanged or higher in 2024 despite an unplanned drop in the country's oil output

Russia won't say if it mistakenly downed an Azerbaijani plane on Christmas. But it acknowledges the crash came amid a Ukrainian drone attack in its republic of Chechnya.