We’ll start with the information I’d left in yesterday’s post in the comment section in response to Mark. Yes, President Aliyev was en route to St Petersburg, in Russian airspace, when he was informed the Azeri plane, also in Russian airspace, over Grozny, had crashed in Aktau. What are the odds?
•Edit
Mark mentioned Aliev was in the air over Russia, enroute to St Petersburg when this plane crashed
He was. Here’s the report
“President Ilham Aliyev, en route to the Russian Federation to attend the informal summit of the heads of state of CIS member countries in St. Petersburg today, was informed, while in the Russian airspace, about a plane crash that occurred in. The President immediately instructed to return, APA reports”
Informed, WHILE IN RUSSIAN AIRSPACE, that a plane crash occurred- He immediately returned to Azerbaijan
So, this is similar to the 2014 incident in that regard!
As I’d reported in the December 26 post on this latest incident. Ukraine has previously targeted Chechnya, and the airport in Grozny, which is quite a long way from the main battle theatre-
“The airport in Grozny has been targeted by Ukraine in the past as part of its war with Russia.”
I took the time to look and it is about 1600 kms from central Ukraine to Grozny
Why would Ukraine be targeting Grozny airport in Chechnya?
I must tip my hat to Andrew Korbyko for publishing the information at his substack and ya know what? It makes sense!!! Included below are 3 relevant paragraphs, read entirely at the link provided above
Regardless of whichever explanation one deems to be more credible, the point is that both were caused by Ukraine’s reckless drone attacks against Grozny, which is far away from the special operation zone. This week’s weren’t the first, and the reason why that city has been targeted likely has to do with Ukraine’s belief that these attacks can spark political unrest in that formerly separatist region, thus opening up a so-called “second front” for diverting Russia’s attention and forces from the primary one.
Andrey Kovalenko, who’s the head of the “Center for Countering Disinformation” that’s part of the National Security and Defense Council, told them that “Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny but failed to do so.” In other words, these drone attacks were deliberately meant to create an unsafe environment, which would either coerce Russia into closing its airspace or cause a tragedy.
Closing its entire southern airspace indefinitely as a precaution due to the long range of Ukrainian drones would have objectively been an overreaction with incalculable financial costs just like if the US would have done the same in response to mysterious drone sightings over the East Coast earlier this month.
Nevertheless, precisely because Russia didn’t do so, Ukraine and its media allies will now predictably claim that this was irresponsible after what happened even though Kiev is to blame as explained.
This plane crash is on Ukraine.