Russian president`s visit to Baku occasion to show the flag - Sergei Markedonov

ArmInfo. The visit of Russian  President Vladimir Putin to Baku as a reason to remind the world of  Russia: we have not left, we are interested in peace taking into  account Russian interests. Russian political scientist Sergei  Markedonov shares this opinion.

The expert recalled that this is already the 7th visit of the Russian  president to Azerbaijan. For comparison, he drew attention to the  fact that his predecessor Boris Yeltsin never visited Azerbaijan for  official purposes, and for the first time he visited the Caspian  republic only as an "honorary pensioner" after resigning.

The political scientist also drew attention to the fact that the  heads of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan are meeting for the  third time in 2024.

At the same time, Markedonov is confident that today the issue of  Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation for Moscow has been pushed into  the background, there are more acute and relevant topics (the  Ukrainian conflict has come to Russian soil).

The political scientist is sure that Armenia and Azerbaijan, despite  the repeatedly voiced theses about the "closeness of peace" and the  readiness to sign the corresponding agreement literally by the end of  the calendar year, are still very far from real normalization.

"If you do not identify it with the paper signed by the "high  parties". The collective West is trying to use some weakening of  Moscow's attention to the Caucasus to achieve peace in the name of  the USA + EU. It is unlikely that this suits Russia. The visit to  Baku is an excuse to remind about itself: we have not left, we are  interested in peace taking into account Russian interests. If Yerevan  does not want to hear this, they are trying to find listeners in  Baku," Markedonov believes.

At the same time, the expert noted that Azerbaijan refrains from  anti-Russian sanctions, shows readiness to interact with Russia  beyond the ongoing confrontation between Moscow and Washington (+  Brussels).

"There are points of contact here. But let's be honest: everyone here  is pursuing their own goals, no altruism, nothing personal, just  business.

But can we talk about some kind of complete and final turn of Moscow  towards Baku? Firstly, we should not rush to conclusions until the  end of the negotiations. However, from this, it follows, secondly.  Even in the event of their triumphant success, there is no need to  rush. In addition to Moscow, Baku has a strategic alliance with  Ankara. And here everything is far from being as clear-cut as someone  would like. By the way, Azerbaijan also uses the Russian factor to  raise its shares in the dialogue with Turkey.

Baku is not trying to make a "final choice" between the West and  Russia, the Russian Federation and Turkey. And it will not "decide"  in the foreseeable future, this is a given. But the growing  importance of Azerbaijan in the region, at a minimum, must be taken  into account. At a maximum, it should benefit from this for its  national interests, also not forgetting about Armenia, and Georgia,  and Syria with Iran, and about many other things," Markedonov summed  up.