After the passenger plane was shot down, Russian propagandists released a video showing air defense shooting down Santa Claus's sleigh.

Russian propagandists released a "social video" in which the air defense system shoots down Santa Claus.

This is reported by the publication "Ostozhno, Novosti."

The video depicts Santa Claus flying on a sleigh over Red Square, becoming a target for air defense. At the end of the clip, the Russian Ded Moroz, sitting next to the air defense operator, declares: "That's it, target destroyed. We don't need anything foreign in our sky. Happy New Year!"

The clip is being circulated by propaganda Telegram channels, such as Pool N3.

The recording appeared online against the backdrop of the plane crash in Aktau involving a passenger aircraft shot down by Russian air defense.

According to Western media, including Euronews, and Azerbaijani politicians, the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane crash was the use of Russian air defense systems near Grozny.

The actor who played the air defense operator turned out to be Dmitry Melnikov. In a conversation with "Ostozhno, Novosti," he stated that he cannot disclose the authors of the video due to a non-disclosure agreement.

According to the artist, the video is unrelated to the tragedy in Aktau, as it was filmed before December and has only recently become publicly accessible.

On December 25, an Embraer 190 aircraft from AZAL, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau. There were 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board: 42 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 from Russia, 6 from Kazakhstan, and 3 from Kyrgyzstan. 38 people died, while 29 managed to survive.

Sources familiar with the investigation from Euronews in the Azerbaijani government assert that the disaster occurred due to the explosion of a Russian missile from the "Pantsir-S" system near the aircraft. The incident happened as the aircraft was attempting to land in Grozny, which was repelling a drone attack. Russian airports denied the crew an emergency landing, and the aircraft's communication systems were jammed by electronic warfare means. As a result, the crew redirected the plane to Aktau.

Azerbaijan Airlines decided to suspend flights to seven Russian cities – Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Grozny, and Makhachkala.

Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air has suspended flights from Astana to Yekaterinburg. Sources in AZAL reported that pilots are unwilling to fly to Russia after the tragedy.

"The Russians not only shot down our plane but also denied it landing at the nearest airports. Where is the guarantee that this won't happen again?" one of the pilots noted.

Background. Recall that the Azerbaijani opposition demands that Putin apologize for the plane and end the war in Ukraine. "Because of Putin's war, other nations are suffering," emphasized the opposition party.