Russian officials initially said the plane went down due to weather and a collision with ... Azerbaijan’s preliminary findings were that Russian air defenses caused the crash. There has been no official confirmation of the reports from Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart after an incident in Russian airspace that led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft on Dec. 25, killing dozens.

The Kremlin has said that Putin "apologized for the tragic incident" and expressed his "deep and sincere condolences" the the victims' families.