If there’s any truth to what he alleged about a cover up, and once again it’s pure conjecture at this point since the black boxes haven’t yet been analyzed, then that can be accounted for by personal factors and not a national conspiracy.
I'm leaning towards an accident. Iirc the pilot said he heard something hit the cockpit and thought it was a bird. Could have been a Ukrainian drone. The holes in the plane do resemble shrapnel damage. So a Russian air defense missile could have hit the drone and the resulting shrapnel hit the plane.
"Regrettably, nowhere in his interview did he mention Ukraine’s drone attacks,"
Let's just hope it is no more than simply 'regrettable'.
"...demanding an apology..."
Neglecting to clarify who the apology is due from, i.e. the Americans (and their Ukrainian proxies), seems even more regrettable than failing to acknowledge how and why this most likely occurred in the first place. Let's just hope it's a temporary lack of clarity and/or related vision.
I couldn't say if it's 'just like that', having not familiarised myself with the relevant details. Regrettably, or unfortunately, I feel it safe to say, that sounds pretty likely. I hadn't realised the Azeris were thinking the Russians might take on the re-building of Karabakh, at just the same time as they've taken on rebuilding much of the Ukraine, but it certainly would be par for the course: using anything possible, of which Russophobia and assorted other 'anti-Russian sentiment' is always a favourite, to get squeeze money or favour out of anything and everything, deservedly or not (and perverting perception to misinterpret 'deserving). An unfortunate aspect of being human, I'm afraid.
So, 'yes', in a word — I believe you're probably right.
Even though Aliev "recently reaffirmed his country’s alliance with Russia, and has withstood immense Western pressure to remain a reliable partner for Russia", he is also a reliable reliable partner of Israel . And even though "Aliyev therefore can’t be accused of wanting to smear Russia at others’ behest ", he is does it on his own behast, meanwhile expressing out loud a sort of demand for Russia to rebuild Karabah. Aliev and Erdogan are twins.
Endless speculation and posturing with no forensic results, black box data & etc. available yet to support conclusions? Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Unless Russia can prove the weapon is NOT fired by Russian air defense, I think Putin would choose to cave in. And such definitive proof will be difficult to obtain. Putin does not want to spend more effort worrying about Russia's flanks before the Ukraine episode closes down or at least showing clear signs of ending, but we are not there yet. It is a bitter pill to swallow. High intensity and frequent sweeping around airports within a radius of 10 km would cost a huge effort and cannot guarantee such accidents do not happen again. Commercial flight paths, however, may deserve some attention to issue war-time change.
I have heard, or rather read on social media hence it's about as trustworthy as hearing a rumor at a coffee shop, that the airports had a warning up that all flights should re-direct, but the pilot made the choice to go ahead and attempt the landing, repeatedly. If true, then that's another question that perhaps both Russia and Azerbaijan don't want to answer but should be raised: "what was so damn important about landing at that airport when the plane clearly had fuel to make it so far away before it crashed?"
Things will become clearer only after Forensic analysis including black box data analysis. Only a bit of patience is what is needed. Russia and the affected parties will then do the needful.
Germany had piloted a drone which transited through Finland with connivance of Finnish authorities before bombing Murmansk in the far Russian north. Likewise, it had been reported that at least some of the "Ukrainian" drones which turned up at Grozny had actually been launched from Turkey and remote piloted from the NATO base at Incirlick, having flown over the Black Sea before turning up in Chechnya.
If Russia had not cared to avoid civilian casualties, it would have emulated the example of NATO's first genocidal war on Iraq in 1991, having carpet bombed European airports, seaports and railway lines from which armaments are being shipped to Kiev, and imposed a no fly zone throughout Ukrainian airspace, in the same way in which British Foreign secretary Geoffry Howe had threatened to shoot down all civilian airplanes heading to or from Iraq over the high sea in the Persian Gulf, so as to forestall all chances of escape for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Asian expats, from starvation genocide artificially engendered by a NATO enforced total air sea blockade, NOT A DROP OF WATER, NOT A GRAIN OF WHEAT. Russia would have mimicked NATO's Iraqi feat in enacting the most intensive aerial bombing ever to have been conducted in history post world war 2.
I'm leaning towards an accident. Iirc the pilot said he heard something hit the cockpit and thought it was a bird. Could have been a Ukrainian drone. The holes in the plane do resemble shrapnel damage. So a Russian air defense missile could have hit the drone and the resulting shrapnel hit the plane.
"Regrettably, nowhere in his interview did he mention Ukraine’s drone attacks,"
Let's just hope it is no more than simply 'regrettable'.
"...demanding an apology..."
Neglecting to clarify who the apology is due from, i.e. the Americans (and their Ukrainian proxies), seems even more regrettable than failing to acknowledge how and why this most likely occurred in the first place. Let's just hope it's a temporary lack of clarity and/or related vision.
Just like his lack of clarity in demands for Russia to rebuild Karabah.
I couldn't say if it's 'just like that', having not familiarised myself with the relevant details. Regrettably, or unfortunately, I feel it safe to say, that sounds pretty likely. I hadn't realised the Azeris were thinking the Russians might take on the re-building of Karabakh, at just the same time as they've taken on rebuilding much of the Ukraine, but it certainly would be par for the course: using anything possible, of which Russophobia and assorted other 'anti-Russian sentiment' is always a favourite, to get squeeze money or favour out of anything and everything, deservedly or not (and perverting perception to misinterpret 'deserving). An unfortunate aspect of being human, I'm afraid.
So, 'yes', in a word — I believe you're probably right.
Even though Aliev "recently reaffirmed his country’s alliance with Russia, and has withstood immense Western pressure to remain a reliable partner for Russia", he is also a reliable reliable partner of Israel . And even though "Aliyev therefore can’t be accused of wanting to smear Russia at others’ behest ", he is does it on his own behast, meanwhile expressing out loud a sort of demand for Russia to rebuild Karabah. Aliev and Erdogan are twins.
Endless speculation and posturing with no forensic results, black box data & etc. available yet to support conclusions? Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Unless Russia can prove the weapon is NOT fired by Russian air defense, I think Putin would choose to cave in. And such definitive proof will be difficult to obtain. Putin does not want to spend more effort worrying about Russia's flanks before the Ukraine episode closes down or at least showing clear signs of ending, but we are not there yet. It is a bitter pill to swallow. High intensity and frequent sweeping around airports within a radius of 10 km would cost a huge effort and cannot guarantee such accidents do not happen again. Commercial flight paths, however, may deserve some attention to issue war-time change.
I have heard, or rather read on social media hence it's about as trustworthy as hearing a rumor at a coffee shop, that the airports had a warning up that all flights should re-direct, but the pilot made the choice to go ahead and attempt the landing, repeatedly. If true, then that's another question that perhaps both Russia and Azerbaijan don't want to answer but should be raised: "what was so damn important about landing at that airport when the plane clearly had fuel to make it so far away before it crashed?"
Things will become clearer only after Forensic analysis including black box data analysis. Only a bit of patience is what is needed. Russia and the affected parties will then do the needful.
Germany had piloted a drone which transited through Finland with connivance of Finnish authorities before bombing Murmansk in the far Russian north. Likewise, it had been reported that at least some of the "Ukrainian" drones which turned up at Grozny had actually been launched from Turkey and remote piloted from the NATO base at Incirlick, having flown over the Black Sea before turning up in Chechnya.
If Russia had not cared to avoid civilian casualties, it would have emulated the example of NATO's first genocidal war on Iraq in 1991, having carpet bombed European airports, seaports and railway lines from which armaments are being shipped to Kiev, and imposed a no fly zone throughout Ukrainian airspace, in the same way in which British Foreign secretary Geoffry Howe had threatened to shoot down all civilian airplanes heading to or from Iraq over the high sea in the Persian Gulf, so as to forestall all chances of escape for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Asian expats, from starvation genocide artificially engendered by a NATO enforced total air sea blockade, NOT A DROP OF WATER, NOT A GRAIN OF WHEAT. Russia would have mimicked NATO's Iraqi feat in enacting the most intensive aerial bombing ever to have been conducted in history post world war 2.
If what you're saying is true why is Putin not attacking or even warning Germany or Turkey?