Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are deteriorating, and in this situation, Moscow is the only loser, since it has lost its leverage over Baku.
Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin has managed to achieve the “impossible” – to incite contempt and hatred in equal measure in both Azerbaijan and Armenia.
This opinion was expressed by Azerbaijani analyst Akper Hasanov in an interview with LIGA.net.
According to Gasanov, the cooling of relations with Moscow does not entail any losses for Baku, unlike Russia itself.
“Putin is unique in that he managed to do the impossible, so that he was still despised in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. For example, Russians were also caught and accused of attempting to organize a coup in Armenia. And I fully believe that such an attempt could have been made,” the expert noted.
Hasanov believes that after the Azerbaijani army finally established control over Nagorno-Karabakh a year and a half ago, Russia lost its influence on both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and now it has no other instruments of pressure left in this region.
The analyst explained that all oil and gas pipelines bypass Russia, and the European Union is Azerbaijan’s main economic partner.
He added that the only means of influence that the Kremlin currently has is to put pressure on Azerbaijani citizens in the Russian Federation and to try to force them out of Russian territory. According to official data from the 2021 census, about 475 thousand Azerbaijanis live in Russia, but the real numbers may be four times higher.
In general, according to the analyst, the main reason for the escalation of the conflict is Moscow’s desire to put pressure on Baku in order to prevent Azerbaijan from being too independent.
Recall that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine also claims that Russia has simultaneously made enemies in both Baku and Yerevan. Previously, the Kremlin played on the contradictions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, keeping both countries under control through Karabakh. But when Russian troops fled Karabakh, Moscow lost its levers of influence.
