The Kremlin leader’s apology, made during a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, is likely to tamp down anger that had been growing over the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the President of Azerbaijan for the crash of the civilian airliner that killed 38 people, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday, but did not say that Russia was responsible.