Source – The New York Times

In a normal world, with normal people, Putin would have called Aliyev like, “Ilham Heydarovich, I apologize for the mess my incompetent fools made. Tell us how much, we’ll pay, compensate, the Ministry of Defense issues a formal apology, AZAL gets privileges at Russian airports, and the incident is considered resolved.”

But no, they persist, and the Azerbaijanis are furious. Russia is steadily and stubbornly digging its own grave – for its people and its economy. Russia is about to completely lose the Caucasus. Their ignorance and inability to learn will bury them.