Putin arrives in Azerbaijan for state visit

(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday for a two-day state visit alongside his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The visit to this Caucasian country, a close partner of Moscow, but also of Turkey and a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.

Russian television broadcast footage of the Russian president’s plane arriving in Baku in the evening.

Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev are having dinner together at the Azerbaijani president’s residence, Azerbaijan’s official news agency Azertag reported.

Vladimir Putin is to hold talks on Monday on the shores of the Caspian Sea with Mr Aliev on “issues relating to the development of strategic partnership and alliance relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as current international and regional problems,” the Kremlin said.

The Russian leader also plans to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current Azerbaijani leader and former president of the Caucasian country between 1993 and 2003, according to Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

Also on the agenda are talks in reduced and expanded formats, as well as the signing of joint documents and a press statement by Mr Putin and Mr Aliyev, according to Ria Novosti.

Vladimir Putin’s last trip to Azerbaijan was in September 2018.

Host of the COP29 climate conference next November, Azerbaijan is notably a major producer of natural gas, to which the European Union has turned to make up for the sharp reduction in Russian deliveries since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia, for its part, is accused of having played an equivocal role in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics that long remained in the Russian sphere of influence, over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Armenia criticizes Moscow for its lack of support in the face of Azerbaijan, which completely reconquered by force, in September 2023, this mountainous Azerbaijani region controlled for three decades by Armenian separatists.

Since then, Yerevan has sought to strengthen its ties with the West, including the United States, much to the Kremlin’s dismay.

The Russian president has been the target of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since March 2023 for the “deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia – an accusation rejected by the Kremlin – which limits his travel abroad.

Azerbaijan is not, however, a party to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC, unlike Armenia, which chose to join in 2023 after the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh.