ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Azerbaijan's leader, Ilham Aliyev, to discuss the Azerbaijan Airlines crash that took place earlier this week, killing 38 people. In a statement from the Kremlin, Putin did not claim responsibility and said he, quote, "apologized for the fact that the incident happened in Russian airspace." The call comes amid evidence that a Russian anti-aircraft missile caused the crash. Here to discuss is Brian Taylor. He teaches Russian politics at Syracuse University and is author of the book "The Code Of Putinism." Welcome, Professor Taylor.
BRIAN TAYLOR: Hello, Andrew. Glad to be here.
LIMBONG: So what's your reaction to the news of this call between Putin and the president of Azerbaijan?
TAYLOR: I think the - there are two important things to note. First is that Russia has historically had pretty good relationships with Azerbaijan, which, of course, was also a republic in the Soviet Union, and Putin would be at pains to maintain a good relationship with President Aliyev. And the second thing is that this was kind of a non-apology apology in the sense that he said, we're sorry this happened, but it was due to a tragic incident in Russian airspace. He did not say Russia was responsible for it. So it's sort of like when you say, I'm sorry if I offended anyone, rather than saying, you know, I'm sorry I offended you, right? There's a difference in the phrasing that kept Russia at arm's length from actual responsibility for the incident.
LIMBONG: Is that kind of phrasing par for the course? Is that what you would expect from the Kremlin?
TAYLOR: Well, in some ways, it's actually more than they've been willing to do often historically. So if we think, for example, about the incident in the summer of 2014 when Russian-backed separatists in southeast Ukraine shot down the Malaysian airliner with 298 people onboard - they have never taken responsibility for that. They pushed out a whole bunch of conspiracy theories to blame others for the incident, even though it's quite clear from an international investigation that it was a Russian surface-to-air missile that shot that airliner down.
And then if we want to think even further back, to the Cold War, during the late part of the Cold War in 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner that had strayed into Soviet airspace and killed around 270 people. And in that case also, they said it was a spy flight that was intended to infiltrate Soviet airspace and did not admit that - I mean, they admitted that they shot it down, but they said they had to shoot it down because it was a spy flight, not that it was a mistake on their part.
LIMBONG: So is the surprising thing here that a call happened at all or - the statement does offer - and I'm reading here - deep and sincere condolences to the victims. Is that part interesting, too?
TAYLOR: Yes, I think that part is interesting, and it goes further than we might have expected, and I think it shows the sensitivity that Russia feels about its relationship with Azerbaijan. But it's also clear that, in some way, the statement is trying to shift the blame to Ukraine by saying very specifically that there was a Ukrainian drone attack in the area at the time and that Russian air defense was trying to repel those attacks. So I think part of the message is, we're very sorry this happened, but part of the message is also, you know, Ukraine bears some responsibility for this as well, so they don't want to own it completely on the Russian side.
LIMBONG: The statement from the Kremlin says Russia is investigating this incident. What are you paying attention to as this story develops?
TAYLOR: Well, I think the particulars seem to be pretty well nailed down by experts in that this almost certainly was a Russian air defense missile that intercepted this flight. And it clearly, I think, was an accident. They didn't mean to shoot down a civilian airliner. And it is true that there was drone activity in the area. But it would probably be better if they just fully owned it.
I'm watching one part of the story which has sort of died down in the last couple of days, but it's the way the flight tried to land in Kazakhstan, and there were reports that they had asked for permission to land at two different airports in Russia and were denied, you know, permission to land. And so I think the investigators should try and nail that down, what happened there. And then, obviously, we'll be looking to see what the black box tells us, which they were able to recover from the aircraft.
LIMBONG: That's Brian Taylor, professor at Syracuse University. Thank you so much.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Andrew. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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