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MP: AZAL plane insurance payment does not replace Russia’s state liability

Rizvan Nabiyev, Member of the Milli Majlis Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary Relations

05 September 2025 17:56 (UTC +04:00)

The Russian Foreign Ministry's statement regarding the insurance payment is a statement that casts a shadow over the investigation into the causes of the accident that occurred in Russian airspace on December 25, 2024, and the objective conclusion of the investigation, Rizvan Nabiyev, Member of the Milli Majlis Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary Relations, said in his interview with APA.

The difference between insurance payment and state liability

The MP stated that the fulfillment of obligations arising from the contract signed between a Russia-registered insurance company and AZAL is an entirely different matter from the state responsibility of the Russian Federation under international law and the obligations of its relevant state bodies: “An insurance payment is not the compensation demanded by Azerbaijan. The dissemination of this statement at this time appears more as an attempt to mislead public opinion. This statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an attempt to cover up the circumstances under which the crash occurred, the essence of the issue, the identification of those responsible, and the responsibility borne by the relevant state bodies arising from it. This statement aims to cover up the responsibility arising from the crash that occurred due to the Russian Federation’s inability to ensure safety in its own airspace, where it exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction. According to the 1944 Chicago Convention, the 1971 Montreal Convention, as well as the air transport agreement signed with Azerbaijan in 1993, Russia has the obligation to ensure the safety of Azerbaijani air transport vehicles within its airspace. Since this obligation was not fulfilled by the relevant Russian state bodies, an external interference led to a serious incident with grave consequences, resulting in the loss of many lives.

International conventions and Russia's obligations

Rizvan Nabiyev stated that Russia must demonstrate its commitment to international treaty obligations, officially issue an apology, and as a state, acknowledge its obligation to pay compensation both for the downing of the aircraft and for the individuals who were killed or injured, and take concrete steps in this direction:

Azerbaijan's demands

"These demands were firmly stated by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in December of last year and have since been voiced at the highest level both at the Shusha International Forum and on other platforms. The prompt fulfillment of these demands will serve to ease the tensions that have arisen in bilateral relations."

Crash of AZAL's airplane

Note that an Embraer aircraft belonging to AZAL crashed on December 25, 2024. The plane flying from Baku to Grozny was redirected to Aktau after two unsuccessful landing attempts. It crashed about 5 km from the Kazakh airport.

There were 67 people on board (42 Azerbaijani, 16 Russian, 6 Kazakh, and 3 Kyrgyz citizens), of whom 38 died and 29 survived.

According to the preliminary investigation report published by the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan, the AZAL aircraft was damaged by "foreign objects" before crashing to the ground, which resulted in hydraulic fluid or pressure loss. The report notes that there is no conclusion regarding the identification of foreign objects detected on the Embraer fuselage by the Kazakh side.

Investigations are ongoing. Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Transport, Talqat Lastaev, previously stated that the final investigation report on the AZAL aircraft crash near Aktau could be published in December 2025.

Russia’s “Alfa Insurance” company announced that it has made the aviation hull insurance payment related to the crash of the AZAL Embraer aircraft near Aktau.