Deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis rounded up by police for decades-old murders in a Russian metropolis. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that Baku blamed on Moscow. Rising ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, together with waning Russian affect within the troubled South Caucasus area.
These are among the many components which have led to the escalating tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation the place President Ilhan Aliyev has been in energy since 2003 — virtually so long as the 25-year rule of Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Here’s a have a look at the beforehand heat relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan and what has occurred:
Russia and Azerbaijan developed sturdy financial and cultural ties after 1993 when Aliyev’s father, Heydar, who additionally was Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era Communist boss, turned president. Like Putin, the youthful Aliyev has suppressed political foes and restricted impartial media.
Azerbaijan has purchased oil and pure fuel from Russia to satisfy inner demand whereas exporting its personal power riches to the West. Russia additionally has been the principle marketplace for Azerbaijan’s fruit and vegetable exports. It is also a key transport hall for Russia’s commerce with Iran and different companions within the Center East.
Azerbaijani businessmen management vital property in development, actual property, commerce and different sectors of the Russian financial system.
Russia is house to a large Azerbaijani diaspora. A 2021 census listed a few half-million ethnic Azerbaijanis residing in Russia, however unofficial estimates put that quantity as excessive as 2 million.
Relations with Baku have turn out to be more and more vital for the Kremlin because it despatched troops into Ukraine in 2022, particularly as Turkey has turn out to be a key financial companion for Russia because it confronted sweeping Western sanctions.
Simply earlier than the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an open confrontation erupted between two of its former republics within the South Caucasus — Azerbaijan and its neighbor, Armenia. After years of combating, Armenian-backed separatists received management of Azerbaijan’s area of Karabakh and close by territories.
Russia claimed neutrality within the battle although it supplied financial help and equipped weapons to Armenia that hosted its navy base. Moscow cosponsored peace talks underneath the auspices of the Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe, however they did not produce a deal.
In 2020, Azerbaijan’s navy, bolstered by weapons equipped by ally Turkey, recaptured broad swaths of territory that have been held for almost three many years by Armenian forces. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the area.
Azerbaijan reclaimed full management of Karabakh in September 2023 after a lightning military campaign. Russia, busy with its battle in Ukraine, didn’t intervene, angering Armenia’s management that responded by cutting 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 extra assertive stand in relations together with his neighbors.
On Dec. 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet crashed whereas on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Azerbaijani authorities stated the jet was by accident hit by hearth from Russian air defenses, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 folks aboard.
Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he referred to as a “tragic incident” however stopped in need of acknowledging accountability. Aliyev, in the meantime, criticized Moscow for attempting to “hush up” the incident.
In Could, Aliyev declined to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow alongside different leaders of ex-Soviet nations. Later that month, a Ukrainian overseas minister visited Baku, an indication of nearer ties with Kyiv.
On June 27, police raided the homes of a number of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest metropolis, in what authorities stated was a part of an investigation into murders relationship again many years. Brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov died and a number of other different ethnic Azerbaijanis have been severely injured.
The our bodies have been despatched to Azerbaijan, the place authorities attributed the deaths to “post-traumatic shock brought on by a number of accidents.” The Prosecutor Normal’s Workplace stated the brothers have been subjected to beatings and different bodily abuse by Russian police.
Azerbaijan responded by calling off beforehand scheduled Russian official visits and cultural occasions.
On Monday, masked police stormed the Baku offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-funded media outlet, and arrested seven of its staff. Police additionally rounded up eight different Russian IT consultants and different professionals, who have been accused of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Photographs of the detainees, who did not have any identified felony report, confirmed their faces have been badly bruised. The pictures triggered outrage in Russia the place many hawkish commentators accused Azerbaijan of treating Russians as hostages and urged a troublesome response.
Russia on Tuesday briefly detained the chief of the Azerbaijani neighborhood in Yekaterinburg for interrogation. A video on Russian social media confirmed particular forces breaking the home windows of his automobile, dragging him and his son out, and making them lie face down on the pavement. A outstanding member of the Azerbaijani diaspora additionally was arrested in Voronezh in southern Russia.
Azerbaijan strongly condemned what it referred to as “the demonstrative and deliberate acts of extrajudicial killing and violence” by Russian police following the deaths in Yekaterinburg.
After the arrests of the Sputnik staff and different Russians in Baku, the Russian International Ministry summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador to protest “the latest unfriendly actions of Baku and the intentional steps of the Azerbaijani facet aimed to dismantle bilateral relations.”
Azerbaijan shot again by summoning the Russian ambassador to demand a probe into the deaths, punishment for these accountable and compensation for the victims — steps it stated have been “essential for eliminating the unfavorable ambiance in bilateral relations.” It shrugged off Moscow’s complaints concerning the arrests of Russians in Baku
Aliyev mentioned the tensions with Russia in a name with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an act that appeared designed to rile the Kremlin. Zelenskyy stated he expressed help for Baku “in a state of affairs the place Russia is bullying Azerbaijani residents and threatening the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Requested concerning the name, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Wednesday that “Ukraine will do every thing attainable so as to add gas to the hearth and provoke the Azerbaijani facet to proceed emotional actions.”
Peskov famous that the pinnacle of Russia’s prime investigative company has been involved with Azerbaijan’s chief prosecutor. He wouldn’t say if Putin would converse to Aliyev to defuse the disaster.