Russian, Kazakh presidents discuss situation around Azerbaijani plane crash near Aktau - Kremlin

MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have held a phone conversation at Moscow's initiative, the Kremlin press service said.

"The heads of state exchanged condolences over the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which had Russian and Kazakh citizens onboard among other passengers, near the city of Aktau on December 25," the press service said in a statement.

"The parties assume that the Kazakh government commission investigating all details of the accident will invite experts from Russia, Azerbaijan and Brazil to help decode data from the flight recorders found at the plane crash site. This work being conducted on the territory of Kazakhstan will be impartial and transparent," it said.

"The two countries' leaders will stay in contact regarding the investigation into all circumstances of this tragic accident that happened to the Azerbaijani plane, as well as on key issues concerning the further development of Russian-Kazakh cooperation," the statement said.

Tokayev, for his part, thanked Putin "for the hospitality shown during the informal [Commonwealth of Independent States] CIS summit and the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council held in the Leningrad region a few days ago," it said.