The background to the apology must be that the incident took place in Russian airspace.
The statement comes after several calls for Russia to apologize and after days of speculation and claims that Russia was behind the crash.
According to Vladimir Putin, the Russian air defense should have fired drones at the time of the accident.
According to the statement, he had a telephone conversation with the President of Azerbaijan on Saturday.
The plane, which was on its way from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny, crashed three kilometers from the city of Aktau, near the Caspian Sea. There were 67 people on board, including 62 passengers and five crew members. Among the survivors are at least 32 people, including two children.