As Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia warm, the heads of energy giants Gazprom and SOCAR meet
The heads of the state-owned energy giants, Russia’s Gazprom and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, have met in Saint Petersburg. The talks come as Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia appear to be on the upswing, and as Russia’s energy industry is increasingly hammered by Western sanctions.
The details of the meeting between SOCAR’s Rovshan Najaf and Gazprom’s Aleksei Miller were scant, with most media reports only writing that the two discussed further cooperation.
Some Russian media outlets speculated that Najaf and Miller may have discussed possible projects to send Russian natural gas to Iran through Azerbaijan, following a memorandum of understanding on the same issue that was signed in June 2024. Two months later, coinciding with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Azerbaijan, Gazprom and SOCAR signed an expanded cooperation agreement.
The timing of the meeting was notable, coming a week after the US announced new sanctions against two of Russia’s largest energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, and the EU’s 19th sanctions package imposed a full transaction ban against Gazprom. Both Gazprom and its associated bank Gazprombank, chaired by Miller, have already been sanctioned by the US.
The meeting also sends a possible further signal that the almost-yearlong freeze of ties between Azerbaijan and Russia are in the rearview window.
The hostility between Russia and Azerbaijan stemmed from a deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in December 2024, and worsened after Baku said that Russian police tortured two ethnic Azerbaijanis to death in Yekaterinburg in June 2025. Tensions quickly escalated in the following days, with Azerbaijan issuing a formal complaint to Russia, cancelling all Russia-related cultural events, and arresting a number of Russian journalists accused of espionage.
Earlier in October, Putin finally apologised to his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev during a face-to-face meeting in Dushanbe, prompting many to believe the spat had been put to rest.
Nate Ostiller
