Putin did admit that Russian air defences were at work when the passenger plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, and the Kremlin said Putin apologised to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev over the "tragic incident" in a phone call, but did not say Russian air defence shot the plane.

A Kremlin statement said air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane. View on euronews

While some in Azerbaijan - a Russian ally - have called for an apology from Moscow, Kazakhstan, one of Moscow's main allies, has not pointed the finger at Russia. Russian officials had earlier said that Ukrainian drones were attacking Grozny that day.