Azerbaijan’s flag carrier has announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports, citing potential flight safety risks following a crash of one of its planes that many experts have blamed on Russian air defense fire.

Russia's aviation watchdog said on Friday that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday had decided to reroute from its original destination in Chechnya amid dense fog and a local alert over Ukrainian drones.

The national airlines of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have suspended some flights to Russia after evidence suggested an Azerbaijani plane had been downed by Russian air defence systems. The Kazakh airline,