Azerbaijan demands punishment for those to blame for the crash of the of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane, which was en route from Baku to Grozny and crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

"I can say with confidence that the blame for the death of Azerbaijani citizens in this crash rests with representatives of the Russian Federation. And we demand justice, we demand punishment for those to blame, we demand full transparency and humane behavior," Aliyev said at a Monday meeting with the families of the crewmembers who died in the crash and the surviving flight attendants.

The flight recorders from the plane are now being decoded, he said.

"I am certain that we will learn a tentative result shortly, and everything will fall into its place, the entire picture of the tragedy will become known. And that, naturally, will be important for the full investigation into this tragedy and the punishment of those to blame for it," the president said.

An Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer, en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau on December 25. It was carrying 67 people, including five crewmembers. Of that number, 42 were citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, six of Kazakhstan, and three of Kyrgyzstan. The crash killed 38 people.

Kazakhstan sent the flight recorders from the Azerbaijani plane to the Brazilian Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) for decoding on December 30. The decoding of the flight recorders began in Brazil on January 3.