Following Azerbaijan's president calling for Moscow to accept blame for downing an Azerbaijani plane, there is growing public anger toward Russia for its apparent attempts to sidestep responsibility for the incident.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally.

Authorities in Azerbaijan said Monday that Russian law enforcement officials promised to punish those responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane last week. The AZAL Embraer 190 jet crashed in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday,

The leader of Azerbaijan criticized the Russian response to the crash of a passenger jet that Azerbaijani officials said had most likely been hit by Russian air defenses.

Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” that occurred in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.

The leadership in Moscow on Friday refused to comment on claims that a Russian missile had caused Wednesday's crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet in Kazakhstan with the loss of 38 lives. Moscow was aware of statements made in Azerbaijan's capital Baku,

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crash on Christmas but did not take responsibility for causing it as an investigation continues into the matter.