Meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Aliyev,

We saw each other briefly in Beijing not long ago. Before that, we had several telephone conversations.

I would like to begin our meeting with discussing the most sensitive topic, namely, the air tragedy that occurred in our skies. During our first telephone conversation, I not only apologised for the fact that the tragedy took place in Russia's airspace, but expressed my deepest condolences to the families of the passengers who died in that crash as well. I would like to say those words again and reiterate that, as agreed, we are cooperating with the investigative authorities.

The investigation is nearing completion and, at this point, we can discuss the causes of this tragedy, this catastrophe. It was caused by several factors.

The first is that a Ukrainian drone was mid-air at the time of the tragedy. We were tracking three drones crossing the Russian Federation's border during the night of the tragedy.

The second factor involves technical malfunctions in Russia's air defence system. Two missiles that were launched did not hit the aircraft directly. Had that happened, the plane would have crashed immediately. They exploded, possibly through the self-destruction mechanism, a few metres, maybe ten metres, away from it. As a result, the damage was caused mainly not by the warheads, but most likely by missile fragments. That is why the pilot sensed the impact as a collision with a flock of birds which he reported to Russian air traffic controllers. All of that was recorded by "black boxes." He was also advised - and this is clearly audible on the recordings - to make an emergency landing in Makhachkala, but he decided instead to return to his home base and then to Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, this is the fact.

This is what caused the tragedy. All of this is documented following a thorough analysis of the technical data and a second-by-second review of the black box recordings.

You and I have discussed this issue on a later occasion. Naturally, the Russian side will do everything that must be done in these tragic circumstances, including compensation payments and a legal assessment of the actions of all officials involved.

Of course, these words of support and sympathy for the families affected by this tragedy cannot solve the main problem. They cannot bring back the people who lost their lives.

To reiterate, our duty - we agreed on this from the very beginning - is to provide an objective assessment of the events and identify the true causes. However, that needs time. We will need more time before we can put this matter to bed. Overall, I outlined the information I received literally on the eve of this meeting, yesterday and the day before. Frankly, I called Moscow last night for more details. I have shared with you practically everything I know myself. This is my first point.

To be continued.