The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the President of Azerbaijan for the crash of the civilian airliner that killed 38 people, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the December 25 Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that claimed 38 lives, the Kremlin’s press service reported.