President Vladimir Putin is contending with an unusual diplomatic challenge from a former Soviet nation that is pushing to take the Kremlin to court over a Christmas Day air tragedy that claimed 38 lives.

The 53-page preliminary report published by Kazakhstan's transport ministry included photographs of the plane.

An Azerbaijani passenger plane that crashed in December after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan had suffered external damage and was riddled with holes in its fuselage, according to a report published on a Kazakh government website on Tuesday.

BAKU (Reuters) - An Azerbaijani passenger plane that crashed in December after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan was hit by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system, an Azerbaijani government source told Reuters on Tuesday.

The 53-page preliminary report published by Kazakhstan's transport ministry included photographs of the plane.

Azerbaijan plans to sue Russia for the downing of its Embraer E190 plane over Grozny if Moscow does not acknowledge fault, according to a report by "Azeri-Press" (APA). The agency states that evidence,

Russian civil aviation authorities said Wednesday that they have not been granted access to the “foreign objects” that damaged an Azerbaijani jet before it crashed in Kazakhstan last month. Kazakhstan’s Transportation Ministry on Tuesday published preliminary findings of its investigation into the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243.