Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have appeared to name one of the conditions to easing tensions between Moscow and Baku — the release of Russian citizens detained in Azerbaijan.
The Russian media outlet Interfax wrote that Putin shared his opinion with journalists after the greeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his wife and Vice President, Mehriban Aliyeva, in China.
‘Today [on 3 September], President Aliyev and I greeted him and his wife, and exchanged a few words. But I believe that the fundamental relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and mutual interest in their development will eventually put everything in its place’, Putin said, as quoted by Interfax.
Putin confessed that there are still problems between the two countries, hinting that ‘some questions always arise’, adding details like ‘based on the current situation or some political situation’.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk also spoke about the Azerbaijan–Russian relations, stating the first step for solving these issues is the release of the 13 Russian citizens who are detained in Azerbaijan.
‘Russia hopes that Azerbaijani leadership will approach the situation with 13 Russian citizens detained in Azerbaijan with understanding and that they will soon be in their homeland’, Overchuk told the Russian state news agency TASS during the 10th Eastern Economic Forum.
Overchuk claimed the tense relations have not impacted economic ties.
‘In the economic sphere, relations are developing very well. And we maintain contacts, constantly. Therefore, here with Azerbaijan, in economic terms, our relations are developing normally, as we planned’, he said, as quoted by TASS.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova echoed the sentiment, also mentioning that the release of 13 Russian citizens could be an important step towards normalising relations between Moscow and Baku.
Zakharova said ‘the topic was discussed in detail during the meetings of the Russian–Azerbaijani intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation held in Astrakhan on 22 August’.
‘The position of our country was communicated in detail to the Azerbaijani delegation’.
Zakharova said that three times in July, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry visited Russian citizens in the Baku pre-trial detention center.
Zakharova stressed that they appealed to Baku for a fourth meeting with the detainees, but have not received a response.
Aytan Farhadova
Despite the Russian authorities appearing to show interest in normalising relations between the two countries, Russian pro-government media has continued to report that the cause of the Azerbaijani Safarov brothers’ death was natural.
In June, the two brothers Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, were killed during Russian law enforcement raids in Yekaterinburg, with several others seriously injured and nine people arrested. Following this, Baku cancelled a number of Russia-related events and raided the offices of Russian-state news agency Sputnik in Azerbaijan.
Nate Ostiller
Baku has demanded that the perpetrators of the killing of the Safarov brothers be held accountable, and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry expressed a ‘strong protest’ to the Russian ambassador.
The death of the brothers is being investigated by Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office under charges of torture and murder at the hands of Russian law enforcement in Yekaterinburg.
Later, in July, Russian citizens in Azerbaijan were detained in what appeared to be a tit-for-tat response.
Relations between the two countries have been strained since the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane in Kazakhstan in December 2024, killing 38 people.
Azerbaijan has said the plane was accidentally struck by a Russian air defence missile and called on Moscow to take responsibility for the incident.
Nate Ostiller
