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Kremlin propagandist Solovyov threatens ‘special military operation’ against Azerbaijan

Kremlin propagandists Vladimir Solovyov on his television show.
Kremlin propagandists Vladimir Solovyov on his television show.

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Top Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has again threatened Azerbaijan, this time claiming that a new ‘special military operation’ may be necessary to prevent a NATO base from being created on the Caspian Sea. Russia has been using the term special military operation to describe its bloody, now almost four-year-long full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

‘It is necessary to understand that what is happening in the South Caucasus is a very big problem. And soon, the Caspian Sea could end up in a situation where NATO bases might appear there. This is so dangerous that, from a geopolitical perspective, it could lead to consequences where this might not be the last special military operation of our generation’, Solovyov said on his television show on Sunday.

The not-so-vague threats came days after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and US President Donald Trump met in Washington, where the three leaders agreed to open a US-managed route from Azerbaijani through Armenia to its exclave of Nakhchivan. The agreement effectively froze Russia out, which had long been the primary player in the region, and visibly angered the Kremlin.

In addition to Solovyov’s threats — which he had previously made towards Azerbaijan amid the fallout in relations between Baku and Moscow over the last year — Russian MP Andrei Gurulyov suggested banning the import of Azerbaijani goods and shaking down Azerbaijanis in Russia. He also added that the ‘special military operation is a wide concept’, which can include all countries on Russia’s border — implying Azerbaijan could be next.

Yury Podolyaka, a popular pro-Kremlin war blogger with more than 3 million followers on Telegram, said a war between Russia and Azerbaijan ‘is going from theoretical to quite probable’, and referenced recent rumours that Baku would begin supplying Kyiv with weapons if Russia did not stop attacking energy depots in Ukraine that hold Azerbaijani fossil fuels.

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Azerbaijan hits back

The rhetorical attacks come at a low point in Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia, fueled by the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flight in December 2024, which Baku has blamed on Russian air defence, as well as the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis during a Russian police raid in Yekaterinburg in June 2025.

Simultaneously, Azerbaijan has become increasingly public in its support for Ukraine, as well as being more assertive in response to Russian threats.

Reacting to the latest round of menacing Russian comments, the Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet Caliber published a scathing article on Tuesday.

The article criticised the above-mentioned individuals personally and by name, comparing Solovyov to a person with ‘low social responsibility’ and saying he only works on behalf of his ‘Kremlin handlers’.

‘If tomorrow they order him to apologise again for threats against our country, he will obediently and wholeheartedly perform a public act of repentance, offering yet another apology to Azerbaijan’.

The piece was even more critical of Gurulyov, calling him an ‘obvious alcohol abuser’, and saying his threats ‘reek of the Russian provinces, where marginal personalities, at best sitting in a communal apartment kitchen half-drunk, allow themselves to pontificate about the advantages of a multipolar world over a unipolar one’.

The article concluded by pointing out the poor performance of Russia’s army in Ukraine, compared to that of Azerbaijan.

‘Russia is unlikely to start a war with Azerbaijan, whose well-equipped army has a proven record of victory’, the piece argued, adding that ‘the puppeteers behind Solovyov and Gurulyov’ know that an attack on Azerbaijan means an attack on Turkey.

‘So, to borrow Gurulyov’s words, the term “special military operation” may end up being a flexible concept for a military-political fiasco for Russia. And Moscow understands this perfectly well’.

Explainer | What was behind the recent spat between Azerbaijan and Russia?
The very public falling out between Baku and Moscow was arguably the most significant break in bilateral relations since they were first established.

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