It is still early to speak about Russia's transition to the new strategy in the South Caucasus. If the situation is more or less clear regarding Georgia, at least for a short period of time, there is still no full clarity regarding Armenia and Azerbaijan, executive director of the political centre "North-South" (Moscow), Aleksey Vlasov, told Arminfo correspondent when replying to the question if President Putin's visit to Azerbaijan will mean the beginning of the new strategy of Moscow regarding Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus region in general.
"The Kremlin is angry with Yerevan's actions on the DCFRA agreement between the EU and Armenia, and "is balancing" its irritation by the " top priority" visit to Baku. But there is no fundamental pre-conditions for the fully=fledged turning towards rapprochement with Azerbaijan", - the expert said.
Vlasov thinks that certainly one can seriously move the balance towards the partnership with Baku in the energy and military and technical sphere. However, these steps do not yet mean final making a break with former priorities. "I think that in the present quickly changing regional realities, Putin himself has decided to find an answer to the question "Who Mr Aliyev is?", which his advisers have not manage to do", - Vlasov concluded.