Having lost Armenia and Karabakh, Russia is losing Azerbaijan as well

Once again, it can be stated that relations between Azerbaijan and Russia increasingly resemble those between Armenia and Russia in recent years. The fuss around the closure of the Russian House in Baku and the ban on entry to Azerbaijan of Russian MP Nikolai Valuev had not yet “subsided”, as the Azerbaijani media announced the exposure of the Russian spy network.

The head of this structure, according to local media, was the former head of the presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, known as the “éminence grise”. The group also included former Azerbaijani Culture Minister Abulfas Garayev, former Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov and former Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Mehdiyev and Mammadyarov have already refuted the accusations that they “are Russian spies.” However, we are not interested in the fate of these figures but in what is happening in Russian-Azerbaijani relations as a whole.

What is happening in relations between Moscow and Baku can be described as the “Karabakh absence syndrome.” The reality is that the dissolution of Artsakh as a foothold in the South Caucasus and the loss of Armenia as a strategic ally did not make Azerbaijan Russia’s ally. On the contrary, it allowed Azerbaijan to more openly pursue a policy of driving Russia out of the region. The story of the Azerbaijani plane that crashed in Kazakhstan was just an excuse to launch a propaganda machine.

It is noteworthy that discontent in Azerbaijan was also caused by the latest interview with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, who reiterated that Moscow is ready to contribute to the normalization of relations between the parties. He also stated that Russia is against Armenia and Azerbaijan signing “hasty documents.” It is obvious that Baku and Moscow have deep differences on this issue. For them, not only is Russia’s participation in the talks between Baku and Yerevan unacceptable, but also the very mention of this possibility. It can be assumed that Alen Simonyan, by his statement against Russian mediation in the talks, provided political support to his Azerbaijani colleagues.

It remains for us to state that this very situation and the very recent disagreements between Baku and Tehran, which led even to the closure of the embassy, show that if there is competent leadership in Armenia, much of what has happened in recent years can be changed.

Think about it…