MOSCOW: Russia-Azerbaijan relations are going through a difficult phase but Moscow is hopeful they will recover, the Kremlin said on Monday.
On Saturday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he wanted Russia to publicly acknowledge that it had accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani passenger plane last December, killing 38 people on board, and to punish those responsible.
Tensions between Moscow and Baku have also escalated in recent weeks following the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijani men in Russian police custody.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said relations between the two countries were based on a solid foundation and common interests.
“But sometimes it happens that there are difficult periods in the relations between the two countries. This is one such period, and we hope that this period will pass,” he told reporters.