While Tajikistan attended the Council of Heads of State of the CIS, Putin held a meeting with Azerbaijani President Aliyev for more than an hour.

Putin rarely apologized to his former younger brother, which is the first time that Putin has publicly apologized to other countries in his 25 years in power. At the end of last year, an Azerbaijani passenger plane was attacked by missiles in Chechen airspace, and then crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 39 people.

In fact, Putin had already expressed his apology to Aliyev on the phone, but did not make it public, and the reason was that "the incident occurred in Russian airspace" and did not claim responsibility. Nearly a year after the incident, Putin finally gave an explanation for the shooting down of the passenger plane.

Azerbaijan was a member of the Soviet Union and after independence remains a member of the CIS andins close ties with Russia.

However, in the second Battle of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, Azerbaijan won a great victory and recovered a large area of territory. At this time, Russia's intervention in mediation aroused dissatisfaction from Azerbaijan, believing that it was protecting Armenia's interests. Later, there were frequent border conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and Azerbaijan publicly criticized Russia for failing to perform its duties.

Especially after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia's control over the Transcaucasian region has become weaker and weaker. Azerbaijan has also further turned to Turkey and strengthened its cooperation with the European Union. It also called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces in mid-2024.

The conflict between the two sides broke out because of the crash of a passenger plane at the end of last year. At that time, an Azerbaijani passenger plane was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile over the Russian Republic of Chechen, and had to turn to Kazakhstan. It eventually crashed in the coastal area, killing 39 people.

After the incident, Russia did not take responsibility at first, Azerbaijan is very upset about it, and does not trust Russia's investigation, asking countries such as Turkey to join the investigation group.

In June this year, the contradiction between the two sides further escalated. Russia arrested a number of Russian citizens of Azerbaijani origin while investigating the backlog in Yekaterinburg, but resulted in two deaths. After transporting the remains back for autopsy, Azerbaijan believed that the deceased had been beaten, accused Russia of abusing Azerbaijanis, and took a series of tough measures to respond.

For example, the direct closure of the Russian satellite news agency branch, and the arrest of the head of the station and others, also accusing them of being Russian spies. More seriously, Azerbaijan arrested some Russian citizens and accused them of drug trafficking.

At the time, almost all the news in Azerbaijan was attacking Russia, while strengthening ties with Ukraine.Zelensky called Aliyev in hopes of deepening energy cooperation, while Aliyev openly expressed his support for "Ukrainian territorial integrity".

To this day, the main contradiction between Azerbaijan and Russia is actually the passenger plane crash. So this time Putin came straight to the point when meeting with Aliyev. He first expressed his apology, also expressed condolences to the families of the victims, and explained three reasons for the plane crash:

First, Ukrainian drones appeared in the air at that time, and Russia was tracking three Ukrainian drones at the time of the incident.

Second, the Russian air defense system suffered a technical failure and mistakenly fired two missiles. However, the missile did not directly hit the plane, possibly because the self-destruction program was started and it exploded a few meters away from the passenger plane. It was not the fragments in the warhead that caused the damage to the passenger plane, but probably the missile fragments.

Third, the Russian side suggested that the passenger plane landed at Mahatchikara airport, the black box also clearly recorded these, but the passenger plane decided to return to its own country, but on the way to Kazakhstan, eventually crashed.

Putin also promised to make compensation and investigate those responsible. The final investigation results will take some time to complete.

From Putin's explanation, he tried to mitigate the situation as much as possible. The reason for what happened was that the Russian army was tracking Ukrainian drones, not intentionally targeting Azerbaijani aircraft. The process of things, which did not directly hit the aircraft, mitigate its responsibility. Regarding goodness, it was noted that the aircraft did not listen to the advice to return to the aircraft to cause the accident.

Of course, Azerbaijan also seems willing to accept such an explanation, after all, it is not good for itself to fight with a strong neighbor. Aliyev thanked Putin for personally overseeing the investigation, and believes that the investigation will thoroughly and objectively find out all the situation.

This statement also shows that the two countries have split their hearts.

Then, why did the two countries, which seemed to be making a fierce noise, suddenly turn around?

Azerbaijan has a very high strategic position for Russia. The Caucasus region has always been regarded as the south gate by Russia. In order to safeguard national security, it tries its best to control this region and avoid the intervention of external forces. For example, when Georgia wanted to join the European Union, Russia did not hesitate to wage war.

Russia has two major geo-economic projects in the Caucasus, including the North-South Corridor, which connects Iran and even India through multi-mode transportation, which is also an important trade channel bypassing Western sanctions. The East Corridor connects Turkey from Azerbaijan, which is an important Russian energy trade channel. Both canals must pass through Azerbaijan.

In particular, Azerbaijan is also an Islamic country, and it has close ties with Russia¡¯s affiliated republics in the Caucasus region, which is also crucial forining stability in the region. That is why, even if Azerbaijan is fierce, Russia has always failed to react strongly. Even in order to restore the relationship between the two sides, Putin openly apologized to him with dignity.

Similarly, for Azerbaijan, Russia is also very important. Russia is a powerful neighbor, and if the relationship with such a neighbor is tense, it will undoubtedly pose a threat to national security. Moreover, Russia still has a certain influence on the Caucasus and can contain Azerbaijan through Armenia and Iran. Azerbaijan must improve its relations with Russia.

In fact, the two countries also have a close relationship economically. Putin said that the trade volume between the two sides increased by about 6% last year, and this year's trade volume has increased by more than 16%. In fact, Azerbaijan has been importing natural gas from Russia, and then pretending to be its own natural gas and selling it to European countries to earn high profits.

Therefore, in fact, the two sides do not want to get stuck, and the relationship can be restored after the main contradictions are resolved.