Once we win in the special military operation, questions of Azerbaijani russophobia will fade into the background: Pavel Danilin

Pavel Danilin, political scientist, commented to Alpha News on recent anti-Russian statements made by Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan.

“It has to be said that Aliyev holds a fairly consistent anti-Russian position. And it’s obvious why he does this. He does it in order to appease his young supporters, who demand tough confrontation with Moscow and harsh, radical statements from Aliyev. And he acts accordingly, in order to satisfy his electorate,” the expert believes.

In his view, Azerbaijan is an important trade and economic partner for Russia, which is why official Moscow shows political wisdom on certain sensitive issues.

“The fact is, we simply share a border with Azerbaijan. We have close economic ties with Azerbaijan, and in the context of economic relations and the North–South corridor, Azerbaijan is certainly of interest to us. That’s why certain issues, which we might not tolerate from a country we don’t share a border with, have to be somewhat smoothed over,” Danilin added.

The political scientist stresses that the issue of Azerbaijani russophobia will resolve itself once Russia settles its affairs on the Ukrainian track.

“We need to win in the special military operation, and then questions of Azerbaijani russophobia will immediately fade into the background. That’s all. Once we win in the special military operation, there will be no more of these russophobic statements. We just need to win in the special military operation,” Alpha News’ interlocutor concluded.