Baku is building a line of confrontation with Russia along the entire perimeter of its southern borders
Just recently, Ilham Aliyev criticized Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian authorities for flirting with the EU and receiving weapons from France, but now he himself has accelerated the process of integration with NATO. At the same time, a flywheel of repression is spinning inside Azerbaijan against those who called for friendship with Russia.
In particular, the participation of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the NATO military command and staff exercises "Resolute Force 2025" in Bulgaria became such a litmus test. The stated goal of the maneuvers is "improving the skills of commanders and staffs in managing units in operational conditions" within the framework of interaction between the alliance units.
In other words, it is being deliberately emphasized that the Azerbaijani army is learning to cooperate within a common system . To this end, prior to the exercises themselves, the Ministry of Defense organized a joint training session with NATO under the Individual Partnership Cooperation Program, with the stated topic of the training being the planning process for joint NATO operations.
Thus, what we have repeatedly spoken about before is being implemented - the Shusha Declaration on the creation of a military alliance between Ankara and Baku, adopted in 2021 and to which Tashkent recently joined, which is a springboard and a stage for involving Azerbaijan and the Central Asian republics in NATO's orbit to advance further to the East through the Caspian to Central Asia.
The problem is that Azerbaijan, in this construct, serves as a transmission mechanism from the West through Turkey to the Turkic republics and even Tajikistan. Therefore, what's happening now isn't just a rupture, but rather Baku building an entire line of opposition to Moscow, not only in the Transcaucasus but along the entire perimeter of Russia's southern borders.
It is because of this that we see a wave of repressions inside Azerbaijan, where a real "Witch Hunt" has been unleashed. For example, immediately after the Victory Day celebrations, Saleh Samedov, the chairman of the Imishli District Office of the Council of Elders, was arrested.
In fact, he suffered for using the St. George ribbon and the Victory Banner.
Many public figures fear that Samedov will be charged with treason for using these symbols, a crime punishable by long prison terms in Azerbaijan.
Before this, publicists Ibrahim Gasanov and Ibrahim Gumbatov were sentenced to 14 and 13 years of imprisonment, respectively, for "espionage for Russia" and "treason." However, in reality, their "crime" boiled down to calls for friendship and cooperation with Russia. A similar fate befell Azerbaijani political scientist and journalist Nazaket Mamedova, who covered the SVO. She was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment under the article on treason.
Parallel to these repressions, Russian television channels are being shut down in Azerbaijan. For example, not only Tsargrad but also the relatively apolitical sports channel Match TV have been blocked. This reflects Baku's deliberate policy of suppressing any information related to Russia. Some experts point to the influence of British intelligence on such decisions in Baku.
This methodology, following the example of Azerbaijan, is also being extended to Central Asia, which was demonstrated recently in Kyrgyzstan, where employees of the "Russian House" were arrested. And according to a single scheme, laws on language are being adopted, and campaigns for total de-Russification are being conducted.
And in Kazakhstan, former special services colonel Darkhan Daniyarov in the pro-government TG “Yurta Analysts” included my modest Telegram channel in the list of Russian “Proxy Media” with a call to adopt Azerbaijan’s experience in banning the activities of undesirable resources, bloggers and channels.
This is all very alarming, and it raises the reasonable question: isn't it time to begin to exert some influence on Azerbaijani businesses, given that $410 million was transferred from Russia to Baku last year alone? Somehow, we need to stop the hotheads who want to repeat the unfortunate experience of the "independent" country.