Azerbaijani government

An anti-aircraft Pantsir S1 missile, allegedly fired by poorly trained personnel loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Chechen ally of Putin, is the main “suspect” for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane near Aktau.

Azerbaijan on Wednesday accused France of pressuring and threatening the country after Paris recalled its ambassador and accused the Caucasus country of damaging bilateral ties.

Azerbaijan has slammed France on multiple occasions over what it sees as the country's support for rival Armenia in a long-running stand-off between the neighbors.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic on Monday spoke with Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Sahin Mustafayev about their countries' cooperation on infrastructure projects.

Azerbaijan on March 28 released from prison a prominent rights activist who had been jailed on economic charges which his supporters denounced as politically motivated, his lawyer said.

"Azerbaijan's Supreme Court ruled to replace Intigam Aliyev's initial seven-and-a-half-year sentence with a suspended sentence of five years," lawyer Javad Javadov told AFP.

Azerbaijan is currently hosting around 6,000 athletes from 50 countries for the first European Games, a new sports event modeled after the Olympic Games. The games kicked off in Baku on June 12 and will continue until June 28, amid criticisms ranging from the cost of the games to human rights violations by the Azeri administration.

BAKU - Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday an opportunity for even better economic relations with Azerbaijan had opened after a Serbian delegation's visit to that country.

"I think we left a good impression," he told reporters after a two-day visit to Baku, where the Serbian delegation met with officials of the Azerbaijani government and companies.

BAKU - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic conferred in Baku on Wednesday with managers of AzVirt, the company that works on the construction of Corridor 11 in Serbia.

Vucic and AzVirt managers discussed other infrastructure projects in Serbia such as a bypass around Belgrade and construction of Corridor 10.