The President's Daily Brief
December 30th, 2024: Putin Apologizes for Deadly Plane Crash & ‘Human Wave’ Attacks in Russia
30 Dec 2024
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: A deadly Azerbaijan Airlines crash prompts an apparent apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin—though he stops short of taking responsibility. Reports from Western Russia suggest North Korean troops are being deployed in human wave attacks, leading to mounting casualties on the battlefield. Escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan after Pakistani airstrikes spur Taliban retaliation, resulting in casualties on both sides. And in today’s Back of the Brief: former President Jimmy Carter is dead at the age of 100. We’ll take a look back at America’s 39th Commander-in-Chief. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Monday, 30 December. Well, look at that. We're almost to the end of the year. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.
We'll start the show with the ongoing investigations into that deadly Azerbaijan Airlines crash and an apparent apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin, which stopped just short of accepting responsibility. So one could say, not an apology.
Later in the show, the latest from the battlefields in Western Russia, where North Korean troops are reportedly being used in human wave attacks, leading to, of course, mounting casualties. Plus, the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan is escalating after Pakistani airstrikes spurred Taliban retaliation this weekend, leaving casualties on both sides.
And in today's Back of the Brief, some sad news. Former President Jimmy Carter is dead at the age of 100. We'll take a look back at the extraordinary life of America's 39th Commander-in-Chief. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
Multiple investigations into last week's deadly Azerbaijan Airlines crash in Kazakhstan are still underway, but preliminary findings are now settling on Russian air defense systems as the most likely culprit. And when I say most likely, I mean, well, that was the culprit.
As we reported on the PDB, the tragedy unfolded on Wednesday morning when Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed in a remote area near Almaty, Kazakhstan. Now, the passenger plane was en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, that's the capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia. 38 people were killed and 29 survived.
And those survivors are now beginning to give their accounts of what happened. An Azeri crew member speaking from his hospital room told ABC News he heard several thuds as the aircraft flew over Grozny, Russia. Though he wasn't authorized to share details publicly, he recounted how he noticed blood shortly after hearing loud bangs outside the plane.
The crewman said, quote, I don't know what touched me. I just looked and saw blood. Another passenger recalled hearing two explosions about 20 to 30 minutes after takeoff, adding to the growing body of evidence that surface to air missiles from Russian air defenses likely caused the crash. Azerbaijani officials are now calling on Russia to take responsibility for the crash.
Yeah, that's definitely going to happen. On Sunday, the nation's president, Ilham Aliyev, openly accused Russia of shooting down the plane. though he did stop short of claiming that it was intentional. Speaking on Azerbaijani state television, Aliyev said, "...we can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia.
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