Russia’s failure to let the plane land and its refusal to take responsibility for the crash are upsetting a key partner.

Following Azerbaijan's president calling for Moscow to accept blame for downing an Azerbaijani plane, there is growing public anger toward Russia for its apparent attempts to sidestep responsibility for the incident.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally.

"We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia," President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised statement

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday demanded that Russia admit that it fired at an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet before it crashed, accusing Moscow of initially trying to cover up the cause of the fatal disaster.

Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Baku to the Russian city of Grozny when it was diverted for reasons yet unclear and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan.

Authorities in Kazakhstan are investigating the cause of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in the country, which killed 38 people and injured 29 others on Christmas Day.The big picture: Flight J2-8243 was diverted while en route from Baku,

The Malaysian Airlines flight was travelling at cruising altitude over eastern Ukraine on a journey from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in July 2014. A pro-Russian militia had misidentified the plane as a Ukrainian military transport aircraft.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally shooting down an airliner on Christmas Day in a disaster that killed 38 people, and covering up the cause.

Survivors from the crash told ABC News that they heard and felt explosions outside the aircraft during the flight, after which the plane appeared to lose control.