23:27, 17 July 2026

The head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced the resumption of flights from Baku to Grozny.

Azerbaijan is ready to resume direct air communication with Russian cities, interrupted after the crash of the Baku - Grozny flight in December 2024. These cities include, in addition to Grozny, Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz, Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, and Volgograd.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov met today with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Moscow. Lavrov characterized the talks as "substantive, useful, and trusting" and reminded of the recent words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that relations between the countries are fully normalized.

Official Baku and Moscow reported on April 15 about the settlement of the consequences of the AZAL airline plane crash, including regarding compensation. The cause of the tragedy was cited as "unintentional action of the air defense system." More about the crash of the aircraft flying from Baku to Grozny can be read in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "The crash of the Baku-Grozny flight" and in the material "Geopolitical confrontation: what the AZAL plane crash led to".

Direct flights from Azerbaijan to a number of Russian cities, interrupted after the crash of the AZAL passenger aircraft at the end of 2024, will resume "in the near future," said the country's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

According to Bayramov, the routes that had "restrictions after the known tragic incident" have been restored. Lavrov, in turn, confirmed that all issues related to the crash have been fully resolved, TASS reports.

After the plane crash over Aktau, "Azerbaijan Airlines" suspended flights from Baku to ten Russian cities. Six of them are located in southern Russia: Grozny, Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz, Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, and Volgograd. In addition, flights to Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, and Ufa were also suspended. At the same time, AZAL retained flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Astrakhan, Kazan, and Novosibirsk, notes BFM.ru.

On December 25, 2024, an "Azerbaijan Airlines" plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed at the airport in the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 people. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport stated that the plane was damaged in Russian airspace as a result of external influence.

At the meeting of the foreign ministers in Moscow, the development of trade and economic cooperation, transport links, and humanitarian contacts were discussed, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

"During the meeting, there was an exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and other regional and international security issues," the press release on the ministry's website notes. Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated on July 14 that Azerbaijan's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity is a point of disagreement between Moscow and Baku.

Translated automatically via OpenAI from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/425012