Latest news with #RussiaAzerbaijanRelations
Washington Post
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Relations nosedive between Russia and former close ally Azerbaijan
Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic, have dramatically deteriorated after a campaign of arrests against each other's citizens that could herald a major realignment in a region once seen by Moscow as its backyard. The two countries long enjoyed a close partnership in the politically sensitive South Caucasus region on the Caspian Sea, but with Russia distracted by the war in Ukraine, Azerbaijan has grown bolder in challenging Moscow's dominance. It is also seeking closer alliances with Turkey and Israel.
CTV News
a day ago
- Business
- CTV News
Tensions are rising between Russia and Azerbaijan. Why is this happening now?
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev enter a hall during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 8, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) Deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis rounded up by police for decades-old murders in a Russian city. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that Baku blamed on Moscow. Growing ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, along with waning Russian influence in the troubled South Caucasus region. These are among the factors that have led to the escalating tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian Sea country where President Ilhan Aliyev has been in power since 2003 -- almost as long as the 25-year rule of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Here is a look at the previously warm relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan and what has happened: Economic ties between Russia and Azerbaijan Russia and Azerbaijan developed strong economic and cultural ties after 1993 when Aliyev's father, Heydar, who also was Azerbaijan's Soviet-era Communist boss, became president. Like Putin, the younger Aliyev has suppressed political foes and restricted independent media. Azerbaijan has bought oil and natural gas from Russia to meet internal demand while exporting its own energy riches to the West. Russia also has been the main market for Azerbaijan's fruit and vegetable exports. It also is a key transport corridor for Russia's trade with Iran and other partners in the Middle East. Azerbaijani businessmen control significant assets in construction, real estate, trade and other sectors of the Russian economy. Russia is home to a sizable Azerbaijani diaspora. A 2021 census listed about a half-million ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Russia, but unofficial estimates put that number as high as 2 million. Relations with Baku have become increasingly important for the Kremlin since it sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, especially as Turkey has become a key economic partner for Russia as it faced sweeping Western sanctions. The Karabakh separatist conflict Just before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an open confrontation erupted between two of its former republics in the South Caucasus — Azerbaijan and its neighbor, Armenia. After years of fighting, Armenian-backed separatists won control of Azerbaijan's region of Karabakh and nearby territories. Russia claimed neutrality in the conflict even though it provided economic assistance and supplied weapons to Armenia that hosted its military base. Moscow cosponsored peace talks under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but they didn't produce a deal. In 2020, Azerbaijan's military, bolstered by weapons supplied by ally Turkey, recaptured broad swaths of territory that were held for nearly three decades by Armenian forces. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Azerbaijan reclaimed full control of Karabakh in September 2023 after a lightning military campaign. Russia, busy with its war in Ukraine, didn't intervene, angering Armenia's leadership that responded by scaling down its ties with Moscow and bolstering relations with the West. The victory in Karabakh has fueled Azerbaijan's ambitions and prompted Aliyev to take a more assertive stand in relations with his neighbors. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight On Dec. 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defenses, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a 'tragic incident' but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticized Moscow for trying to 'hush up' the incident. In May, Aliyev declined to attend Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow alongside other leaders of ex-Soviet nations. Later that month, a Ukrainian foreign minister visited Baku, a sign of closer ties with Kyiv. Police raids lead to heightened tensions On June 27, police raided the homes of several ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, in what authorities said was part of an investigation into murders dating back decades. Brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov died and several other ethnic Azerbaijanis were seriously injured. The bodies were sent to Azerbaijan, where authorities attributed the deaths to 'post-traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries.' The Prosecutor General's Office said the brothers were subjected to beatings and other physical abuse by Russian police. Azerbaijan responded by calling off previously scheduled Russian official visits and cultural events. On Monday, masked police stormed the Baku offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-funded media outlet, and arrested seven of its employees. Police also rounded up eight other Russian IT experts and other professionals, who were accused of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Images of the detainees, who didn't have any known criminal record, showed their faces were badly bruised. The images caused outrage in Russia where many hawkish commentators accused Azerbaijan of treating Russians as hostages and urged a tough response. Russia on Tuesday briefly detained the leader of the Azerbaijani community in Yekaterinburg for interrogation. A video on Russian social media showed special forces breaking the windows of his vehicle, dragging him and his son out, and making them lie face down on the pavement. A prominent member of the Azerbaijani diaspora also was arrested in Voronezh in southern Russia. Tough talk from Baku and Moscow Azerbaijan strongly condemned what it called 'the demonstrative and deliberate acts of extrajudicial killing and violence' by Russian police following the deaths in Yekaterinburg. After the arrests of the Sputnik employees and other Russians in Baku, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador to protest 'the recent unfriendly actions of Baku and the intentional steps of the Azerbaijani side aimed to dismantle bilateral relations.' Azerbaijan shot back by summoning the Russian ambassador to demand a probe into the deaths, punishment for those responsible and compensation for the victims — steps it said were 'crucial for eliminating the negative atmosphere in bilateral relations.' It shrugged off Moscow's complaints about the arrests of Russians in Baku Aliyev discussed the tensions with Russia in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an act that seemed designed to rile the Kremlin. Zelenskyy said he expressed support for Baku 'in a situation where Russia is bullying Azerbaijani citizens and threatening the Republic of Azerbaijan.' Asked about the call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that 'Ukraine will do everything possible to add fuel to the fire and provoke the Azerbaijani side to continue emotional actions.' Peskov noted that the head of Russia's top investigative agency has been in contact with Azerbaijan's chief prosecutor. He wouldn't say if Putin would speak to Aliyev to defuse the crisis.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Tensions are rising between Russia and Azerbaijan. Why is this happening now?
Deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis rounded up by police for decades-old murders in a Russian city. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that Baku blamed on Moscow. Growing ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, along with waning Russian influence in the troubled South Caucasus region. These are among the factors that have led to the escalating tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian Sea country where President Ilhan Aliyev has been in power since 2003 -- almost as long as the 25-year rule of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Here is a look at the previously warm relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan and what has happened: Economic ties between Russia and Azerbaijan Russia and Azerbaijan developed strong economic and cultural ties after 1993 when Aliyev's father, Heydar, who also was Azerbaijan's Soviet-era Communist boss, became president. Like Putin, the younger Aliyev has suppressed political foes and restricted independent media. Azerbaijan has bought oil and natural gas from Russia to meet internal demand while exporting its own energy riches to the West. Russia also has been the main market for Azerbaijan's fruit and vegetable exports. It also is a key transport corridor for Russia's trade with Iran and other partners in the Middle East. Azerbaijani businessmen control significant assets in construction, real estate, trade and other sectors of the Russian economy. Russia is home to a sizable Azerbaijani diaspora. A 2021 census listed about a half-million ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Russia, but unofficial estimates put that number as high as 2 million. Relations with Baku have become increasingly important for the Kremlin since it sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, especially as Turkey has become a key economic partner for Russia as it faced sweeping Western sanctions. The Karabakh separatist conflict Just before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an open confrontation erupted between two of its former republics in the South Caucasus — Azerbaijan and its neighbor, Armenia. After years of fighting, Armenian-backed separatists won control of Azerbaijan's region of Karabakh and nearby territories. Russia claimed neutrality in the conflict even though it provided economic assistance and supplied weapons to Armenia that hosted its military base. Moscow cosponsored peace talks under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but they didn't produce a deal. In 2020, Azerbaijan's military, bolstered by weapons supplied by ally Turkey, recaptured broad swaths of territory that were held for nearly three decades by Armenian forces. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Azerbaijan reclaimed full control of Karabakh in September 2023 after a lightning military campaign. Russia, busy with its war in Ukraine, didn't intervene, angering Armenia's leadership that responded by scaling down its ties with Moscow and bolstering relations with the West. The victory in Karabakh has fueled Azerbaijan's ambitions and prompted Aliyev to take a more assertive stand in relations with his neighbors. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight On Dec. 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defenses, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a 'tragic incident' but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticized Moscow for trying to 'hush up' the incident. In May, Aliyev declined to attend Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow alongside other leaders of ex-Soviet nations. Later that month, a Ukrainian foreign minister visited Baku, a sign of closer ties with Kyiv. Police raids lead to heightened tensions On June 27, police raided the homes of several ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, in what authorities said was part of an investigation into murders dating back decades. Brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov died and several other ethnic Azerbaijanis were seriously injured. The bodies were sent to Azerbaijan, where authorities attributed the deaths to 'post-traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries.' The Prosecutor General's Office said the brothers were subjected to beatings and other physical abuse by Russian police. Azerbaijan responded by calling off previously scheduled Russian official visits and cultural events. On Monday, masked police stormed the Baku offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-funded media outlet, and arrested seven of its employees. Police also rounded up eight other Russian IT experts and other professionals, who were accused of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Images of the detainees, who didn't have any known criminal record, showed their faces were badly bruised. The images caused outrage in Russia where many hawkish commentators accused Azerbaijan of treating Russians as hostages and urged a tough response. Russia on Tuesday briefly detained the leader of the Azerbaijani community in Yekaterinburg for interrogation. A video on Russian social media showed special forces breaking the windows of his vehicle, dragging him and his son out, and making them lie face down on the pavement. A prominent member of the Azerbaijani diaspora also was arrested in Voronezh in southern Russia. Tough talk from Baku and Moscow Azerbaijan strongly condemned what it called 'the demonstrative and deliberate acts of extrajudicial killing and violence' by Russian police following the deaths in Yekaterinburg. After the arrests of the Sputnik employees and other Russians in Baku, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador to protest 'the recent unfriendly actions of Baku and the intentional steps of the Azerbaijani side aimed to dismantle bilateral relations.' Azerbaijan shot back by summoning the Russian ambassador to demand a probe into the deaths, punishment for those responsible and compensation for the victims — steps it said were 'crucial for eliminating the negative atmosphere in bilateral relations.' It shrugged off Moscow's complaints about the arrests of Russians in Baku Aliyev discussed the tensions with Russia in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an act that seemed designed to rile the Kremlin. Zelenskyy said he expressed support for Baku 'in a situation where Russia is bullying Azerbaijani citizens and threatening the Republic of Azerbaijan.' Asked about the call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that 'Ukraine will do everything possible to add fuel to the fire and provoke the Azerbaijani side to continue emotional actions.' Peskov noted that the head of Russia's top investigative agency has been in contact with Azerbaijan's chief prosecutor. He wouldn't say if Putin would speak to Aliyev to defuse the crisis.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia-Azerbaijan tensions: What is known so far
The relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan has rapidly deteriorated in the aftermath of a Russian police raid on a suspected ethnic organized crime gang, which resulted in the deaths of two suspects. Baku has retaliated with multiple hostile steps, targeting Russian journalists and artists and detaining a group of the country's nationals it had portrayed as a 'crime ring' as well. Here is how the events unfolded: Russian police bust organized crime ring Last week, Russian police raided a suspected ethnic Azerbaijani crime ring in the city of Yekaterinburg. The raid was a part of the investigation into a string of murders dating back to the early 2000s and believed to be gang assassinations and contract killings. During the raid, two elderly suspects, identified as brothers Gusein and Zieddin Safarov, ended up dead. It has been established that one of the suspects succumbed to heart failure, the Russian authorities have stated. Six suspects, all of whom are Russian citizens, have been taken into pre-trial custody under the case. After the international scandal erupted, the probe into the alleged organized crime group was transferred to the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee. Azerbaijan plays ethnic card The raid and the death of the suspect have invoked fury in Azerbaijan, with multiple politicians and public figures demanding retaliation against Moscow and accusing the Russian authorities of targeting the alleged crime group based on its ethnicity rather than anything else. Shortly after the incident, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture canceled multiple events involving Russian performers, while the country's parliamentary delegation scrapped its scheduled visit to Moscow. On Monday, the national food safety agency reported the destruction of some 639 kilograms of onion rings imported from Russia, claiming they were contaminated with bacteria. On Tuesday, Baku officially accused the Russian law enforcement of beating the Safarov brothers to death. The bodies of the suspects had been transferred to Azerbaijan for burial and local medical examination allegedly showed both men succumbed to severe blunt force trauma. Baku targets Russian journalists On Monday, police in Baku raided the office of Russian news agency Sputnik, arresting two senior editors. The agency has been accused of operating 'through illegal financing,' and the journalists - the head of the editorial office, Igor Kartavykh, and Editor-in-Chief Evgeny Belousov - ended up placed under pre-trial detention for four months. During the raid, Azerbaijani police also detained an editor with the Russian video news agency Ruptly, who was filming outside the Sputnik's office. The journalist, Aytekin Guseynova, spent only some 20 minutes filming before ending up in police custody. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijani ambassador Rakhman Mustafaev shortly after the raid on Sputnik, citing 'Baku's hostile actions and the unlawful detention of Russian journalists.' The envoy, in turn, handed the ministry a note condemning the alleged 'torture and degrading actions' of Russian law enforcement. Azerbaijan finds Russian 'crime ring' On Tuesday, Azerbaijani police arrested eight Russian nationals, claiming they were members of a group involved in cybercrime and drug trafficking from Iran. The latter country, however, maintains an extremely strict stance on illicit drug trade, which is a capital offense. The suspects were transferred to a Baku court in a heavily armed police convoy. All the Russian nationals appeared to have been severely beaten up, with multiple visible bruises and blood, footage from the court circulated by local media suggested. All the suspects were placed into pre-trial detention for four months. Russian media reports, however, identified two of the suspects as IT specialists who had left the country in the wake of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Another detainee was reportedly identified as a Russian tourist, who was in Azerbaijan on a trip.
Russia Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Azerbaijani ambassador summoned by Moscow
Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned Azerbaijani ambassador Rakhman Mustafaev, following the arrest of three Russian journalists in Baku. Two senior editors with Sputnik media and one with the Ruptly video news agency were detained by Azerbaijani authorities on Monday. Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have soured in recent days, in the wake of a police raid in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, targeting the local Azerbaijani diaspora. Speaking to reporters following the arrests, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that 'in light of Baku's hostile actions and the unlawful detention of Russian journalists… the ambassador of the Azerbaijani Republic has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.' Zakharova expressed concern over the fact that Russian diplomats 'have not been able to contact the [detained] journalists [who are] Russian citizens.' Dmitry Kiselev, the head of 'Rossiya Segodnya' (Russia Today) media group, which Sputnik belongs to, described the arrest of the Russian reporters in Baku as an 'injustice.' 'There have been no objections to the journalistic work of Sputnik Azerbaijan,' he insisted, adding that Russian and Azerbaijani officials agreed to iron out 'formalities' of the Russian media outlet's operations during a meeting in Moscow in early April. However, Baku has allegedly stalled the process. Kiselev expressed incredulity at the way the Russian reporters were treated by the Azerbaijani police, 'as though they were terrorists.' He noted that the treatment of reporters is in stark contrast to the nature of relations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev. Earlier on Monday, Sputnik confirmed that the head of the editorial office Igor Kartavykh and Editor-in-Chief Evgeny Belousov had been detained by police in Baku. Both were accused of being agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) – a claim the Russian media outlet has dismissed as 'absurd.' Later in the day, it transpired that a third Russian journalist, working for the Ruptly video news agency, had also been placed in police custody in Baku. Last week, Russian police carried out a raid on suspected members of an Azerbaijani criminal group in the city of Yekaterinburg in central Russia, arresting a number of individuals. Two of the suspects died during the operation, according to Russia's Investigative Committee, one from a heart attack, the other from an as yet unidentified cause. According to the Russian authorities, the group is suspected of having been behind several murders dating as far back as the early 2000's.
