( Eurasianet ) — State-aligned media in Azerbaijan is lauding the country’s leader, Ilham Aliyev, for making his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin blink first during a long-running diplomatic staredown over the shootdown of a civilian Azerbaijani jetliner last December.

After months of dodging, Putin finally acknowledged that Russian air defenses were responsible for causing the airliner to crash in late December, killing 38 passengers and crew aboard. Putin made the admission on October 9, during a one-on-one meeting with Aliyev on the sidelines of a CIS summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, claiming, implausibly, that he only found out details of the incident a few days before.

The Kremlin leader attributed the mishap to “technical failures in the Russian air defense system,” addi

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