Putin says Russian air defenses were to blame for Azerbaijani jet's crash last year, killing 38

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia’s air defense were to blame for downing an Azerbaijani jetliner in December that killed 38 people, his first public admission of responsibility for the crash in an effort to ease tensions between the neighbors.

Putin said the missiles fired by Russian air defenses to target a Ukrainian drone exploded near the Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku as it was preparing to land in Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on Dec. 25, 2024. Ukrainian drones have regularly struck deep inside Russia.

Speaking at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where both were attending a summit of the former Soviet nations, Putin pledged to punish those responsible and provide compensation.

Azerbaijani authorities had said the Embraer 190 jet was hit accidentally by Russian fire, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan, where it crashed and killed 38 of 67 people aboard.

Days after the crash, Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticized Moscow for trying to “hush up” the incident.

The controversy over the crash has roiled the previously warm ties between Moscow and Baku. Their relations were further destabilized by deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis rounded up by police in a Russian city in June and a series of arrests of Russians in Azerbaijan.

Speaking to Aliyev on Thursday, Putin said that Russian air defenses that targeted a Ukrainian drone fired on the Azerbaijani airliner because of a “technical malfunction,” adding that two missiles exploded just 10 meters (33 feet) away from the passenger jet.

“The Russian side will obviously do everything to provide compensation and give legal assessment to all responsible officials' action,” he said.

“Of course, these words related to this tragedy, aimed at supporting — morally supporting — the families do not solve the main problem: We can't bring back to life those who died as a result of the tragedy,” Putin added.

Aliyev, for his part, thanked Putin for investigating the cause of the plane's downing.

“I would like to thank you for keeping the situation under your personal control,” he said.

Relations with Baku have become increasingly important for the Kremlin since it sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, especially as Azerbaijan's close ally Turkey has become a key economic partner for Russia as it faced sweeping Western sanctions.

Azerbaijan is a key transport corridor for Russia’s trade with Iran and other partners in the Middle East. The energy-rich Caspian Sea nation also has bought oil and natural gas from Russia to meet internal demand while exporting its own hydrocarbons to the West.

Russia, in turn, has been the main market for Azerbaijan’s fruit and vegetable exports and also is home to a sizable Azerbaijani diaspora. A 2021 census listed about a half-million ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Russia, but unofficial estimates put the number as high as 2 million.

All those ties have suffered as tensions over the jet's crash have surged. Both leaders on Thursday signaled their desire to turn the page and ease the strain.

“I hope that our cooperation not only will be restored, but continue in the spirit of our relations, the spirit of our alliance,” Putin said.

Aliyev responded that they had a chance to discuss a “broad and positive” bilateral agenda, voicing hope that “the messages we are sending today to our societies will meet a positive response.”

As part of his state visit to Tajikistan, Putin also sought to bolster relations with the Central Asian nation that neighbors Afghanistan and hosts a Russian military base.

Speaking at the start of his talks with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, who has been in power for nearly 33 years, surpassing Putin's own quarter-century rule, the Russian leader praised the close military and security ties between Moscow and Dushanbe and noted that over 1 million Tajik citizens were working in Russia.

Later on Thursday, Putin held a summit with Rakhmon and the leaders of the four other Central Asian nations to discuss expanding trade and other contacts.

“Russia firmly intends to further strengthen its strategic partnership and alliance with your countries, and deepen mutually beneficial political, economic, and humanitarian ties,” Putin said.

FILE - A woman lights candles at the wall of the apartment building in Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 28, 2024, in memory of pilot Alexander Kalyanin, who died in the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines jet near the Aktau, Kazakhstan, airport. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Injured passengers from an Azerbaijan Airline jet that crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, are transported from a medical plane at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport outside Baku, Azerbaijan, on Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - The wreckage of an Azerbaijan Airlines jet lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, where it crashed on Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Azamat Sarsenbayev, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev talk during their meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Central Asia summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev talk during their meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Central Asia summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Central Asia summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev during their meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Central Asia summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev shake hands prior to their talks on the sidelines of the Russia-Central Asia summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

OpenAI says it will soon start showing advertisements to ChatGPT users who aren't paying for a premium version of the chatbot.

The artificial intelligence company said Friday it hasn't yet rolled out ads but will start testing them in the coming weeks.

It's the latest effort by the San Francisco-based company to make money from ChatGPT's more than 800 million users, most of whom get it for free.

Though valued at $500 billion, the startup loses more money than it makes and has been looking for ways to turn a profit.

“Most importantly: ads will not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” said Fidji Simo, the company’s CEO of applications, in a social media post Friday.

OpenAI said the digital ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT's answers “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.”

The ads “will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer,” the company said.

Two of OpenAI’s rivals, Google and Meta, have dominated digital advertising for years and already incorporate ads into some of their AI features.

Originally founded as a nonprofit with a mission to safely build better-than-human AI, OpenAI last year reorganized its ownership structure and converted its business into a public benefit corporation. It said Friday that its pursuit of advertising will be “always in support” of its original mission to ensure its AI technology benefits humanity.

But introducing personalized ads starts OpenAI “down a risky path” previously taken by social media companies, said Miranda Bogen of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“People are using chatbots for all sorts of reasons, including as companions and advisors," said Bogen, director of CDT’s AI Governance Lab. “There’s a lot at stake when that tool tries to exploit users’ trust to hawk advertisers’ goods.”

OpenAI makes some money from paid subscriptions but needs more revenue to pay for its more than $1 trillion in financial obligations for the computer chips and data centers that power its AI services. The risk that OpenAI won’t make enough money to fulfill the expectations of backers like Oracle and Nvidia has amplified investor concerns about an AI bubble.

“It is clear to us that a lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don’t want to pay, so we are hopeful a business model like this can work,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a post Friday on social platform X. He added that he likes the ads on Meta's Instagram because they show him things he wouldn't have found otherwise.

OpenAI claims it won't use a user's personal information or prompts to collect data for ads, but the question is “for how long,” said Paddy Harrington, an analyst at research group Forrester.

“Free services are never actually free and these public AI platforms need to generate revenue,” Harrington said. “Which leads to the adage: If the service is free, you’re the product.”

FILE - The OpenAI logo is displayed on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen with output from ChatGPT, March 21, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)