Kremlin acknowledges strain in Russia-Azerbaijan relations
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia-Azerbaijan relations are currently going through a challenging phase, but Moscow remains hopeful for improvement as the two countries share common interests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Tensions between Moscow and Baku have escalated in recent months following the detention of several ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia and the death of two of them in police custody.
On Saturday Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said he wanted Russia to publicly acknowledge that it had accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani passenger plane in December last year, killing 38 people on board, and to punish those responsible.
President Vladimir Putin apologised at the time to Aliyev for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defences opened fire against Ukrainian drones. But Putin stopped short of saying Russia had shot down the aircraft.
(Reporting by Dmitry AntonovWriting by Maxim Rodionov;Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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