Yuri Veselov, military observer

On August 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a state visit to Azerbaijan at the head of a representative Russian delegation consisting of several ministers and business representatives. During the two-day negotiations, the parties signed six agreements and memorandums on the development of trade, economic, scientific ties, in the areas of healthcare and medical education.

It should be noted that this particular visit of Vladimir Putin to Baku went beyond business and was, most likely, an openly friendly and highly trusting meeting of the leaders of the two states. On the very first day after his arrival, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev invited his Russian counterpart to the Zagulba country residence on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where they held informal talks on the state and strengthening of bilateral relations, as well as the regional situation. The meeting, according to Vladimir Putin, was of a “family nature.”

On the second day, the talks continued in an expanded format, following which documents were signed and a joint statement was made for the press. The Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan highly appreciated the state and prospects for the development of multifaceted cooperation in the economy, trade, implementation of joint projects, scientific, cultural and humanitarian ties, while pointing to the existing reserves for their expansion. Both leaders emphasized the firmness of their intentions to continue the implementation of the Declaration on Allied Cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan signed on February 22, 2022 – a document regulating cooperation in energy, transport, humanitarian and other areas. It can be assumed that then in Moscow, when signing this important document for the two countries, Vladimir Putin informed Ilham Aliyev in general terms about the beginning of the upcoming Special Military Operation (SMO) of Russia in Donbass. This conclusion is suggested by the fact that since February 2022, Azerbaijan, despite unprecedented pressure from the collective West, has not joined the anti-Russian sanctions, has refused to supply Ukraine with surplus Soviet weapons and military equipment, and has refused to send officials to Kyiv and Baku. Since the beginning of the Second World War, according to open sources, the Transcaucasian republic has supplied Ukraine with several dozen medium-power household electric generators for medical institutions as humanitarian aid.

Over the past few years, Azerbaijan, under the leadership of Ilham Aliyev, has demonstrated strong independence in its foreign and domestic policies, not allowing even friendly Turkey to dictate its terms in politics and economics. Italy, Turkey and Russia are the main trade and economic partners of Azerbaijanis. More than 1,200 representative offices of large and other Russian companies are registered and successfully operating in the Republic, and Russia’s investments in the economy of Azerbaijan this year have exceeded 4 billion rubles. The participants in the talks discussed the progress of the implementation of the North-South trans-border strategic transport highway, which will pass through the territory of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and will end in the seaport of Mumbai in India. An agreement was reached on the start of joint production of modern river-sea tankers at the enterprises of the Russian United Shipbuilding Company and the Baku Shipyard for the transportation of oil products.

Azerbaijan has not lost interest in the Russian language and culture of Russia: there are 243 Russian schools in the republic, and in all the others, Russian is studied as a second language. In the coming years, a Russian-Azerbaijani state university with several medical faculties will be opened in Baku, where teaching will be conducted in Russian.

The presidents of both countries paid great attention to issues of regional cooperation and, in particular, to the further regulation of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, the signing of a peace agreement between Yerevan and Baku. According to a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, made after the negotiations, it was the problem of transport links between East Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Region that became an obstacle to the full normalization of relations between the two republics of the South Caucasus.

According to Sergey Lavrov, Nikol Pashinyan’s government is torpedoing the resumption of rail and road traffic along the Zangezur transport corridor, which runs through the territory of Armenia’s Syunik region, in every possible way. And this is despite the obligations stipulated by the memorandum signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in November 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin informed Ilham Aliyev of his intention to inform Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in detail about the results of the talks in Baku in the hope of moving the final normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations from the dead point.

In general, the talks in Baku demonstrated the leaders’ desire to develop allied cooperation. The postulate of the existence of “brotherly peoples”, “peoples of the same faith”, “eternal friendship” between them, which remained from Soviet times, has now lost its force and turned out to be completely erroneous, based on the examples of Georgia and Armenia. And if the current government of Georgia has become convinced of the perniciousness of curtailing relations with Russia and continues to remain Moscow’s main trading partner, then Armenia is rapidly drifting towards the West on a wave of anti-Russian sentiments. Yerevan refused the presence of a Russian peacekeeping contingent on the demarcation line between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, demanded the evacuation of a group of FSB border guards at the Zvartnots International Airport. Next in line are Russian border units on the Georgian-Iranian and Georgian-Turkish borders, and in the future, the liquidation of the Russian military base in Gyumri.

The Armenian leadership continues to blame Russia for losing control over Nagorno-Karabakh and therefore, for far-fetched reasons, suspended its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union. Yerevan’s military and military-technical ties with Moscow have been completely severed. Yerevan has begun to flirt with Turkey, which was once hostile to it, and has demonstratively “cooled” toward Iran, which has repeatedly bailed it out in difficult situations in recent years. And, conversely, even despite the differences in views on some regional issues, Azerbaijan has always shown restraint in its relations with Russia and has never reproached its leadership, for example, for “returning Crimea to its native harbor” or for conducting the SVO. Moreover, in recent years, cooperation between Baku and Moscow has been dynamically developing in all areas.

Ilham Aliyev has done a lot to overcome a number of acute issues in relations with Iran, to strengthen mutual ties based on trust and respect. The cessation of the presence of three Israeli military facilities on the territory of Azerbaijan, which monitored the air situation in the South and partly North Caucasus, and also provided data on the state and activities of the Iranian and Turkish Armed Forces, was indicative.

At the end of the Russian-Azerbaijani talks in Baku, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Moscow Bulbul Ogly officially announced his government’s intention to apply for the country’s accession to BRICS in the near future. There is no doubt that Russia will lobby for the interests of Azerbaijan.

As for the CSTO, there is no doubt that after Armenia leaves it, Azerbaijan will take its place in the shortest possible time.