Under Aliyev clan’s rule, Azerbaijan will never be Russia’s true ally — Gleb Kuznetsov

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist Gleb Kuznetsov commented on the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, in particular the termination of Rossotrudnichestvo’s activities in Baku.

According to the expert, the tragedy with the Azerbaijani plane became a reason for the Azerbaijani authorities to try to assert themselves at the expense of Russia.

“There is a pretext, and there is a reason, and it is obvious that the pretext was the tragedy with the plane, and the reason is that Azerbaijan is a country that pursues a rather aggressive policy. Azerbaijan denies any positive contribution from Russia to the history of Transcaucasia, and if we read Azerbaijani history textbooks or some of their materials, we see that they endlessly discuss how Russia had a bad influence on Azerbaijan, on the Caucasus, and so on.

Naturally, when the story with the plane happened, the Azerbaijani authorities really wanted to try to assert themselves at the expense of Russia, to demonstrate that Azerbaijan is not only not ready to search for compromise options but is also ready to put itself above Russia at the rhetorical level and has fully established itself as an absolutely independent state. This is the inner nerve of the whole story with Azerbaijan’s latest statements, the closure of the Rossotrudnichestvo office, etc. I believe the situation will continue. This is only the beginning, and we will still see many more growing, aggressive anti-Russian statements. They come from the entire internal ideology of Azerbaijan, which exists today,” Kuznetsov said.

“Even though there is a crisis in relations, Azerbaijan continues to sell Russian gas to Europe under the guise of Azerbaijani. We all understand these schemes; the border is not closed, trade relations continue to develop. At the level of rhetoric and some ideological things, Azerbaijan demonstrates an extremely anti-Russian tendency, but in practice, it remains a trading partner for Moscow,” Kuznetsov added.

The expert noted that in order to maintain economic relations, Russia sometimes has to endure unpleasant words addressed to it.

“Unfortunately, our hands are now largely tied because Azerbaijan is an important partner for the export of Russian energy resources, given the situation that has developed with the sanctions. Russia does not have many such partners, and sometimes we have to endure unpleasant words addressed to us to maintain trade and economic relations.

But in the future, when the overall geopolitical situation changes, there will be an opportunity to properly respond to what is happening today. Azerbaijan will never, at least under the Aliyev clan, be Russia’s ally. At best, it is a trading partner, but it cannot be said to be a highly reliable one.

Azerbaijan’s state ideology is connected with the denial of any positive role of Russia and Russians in the Caucasus. It is extremely naive to believe that a country whose state ideology is connected not only with the belittling of the role of Russia but also with the denial of any positive from Russia can be a real ally and not just a foreign trade partner,” Kuznetsov concluded.