The meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, was undoubtedly the main diplomatic event on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Tajikistan — and not just for the South Caucasus.
Observers have already noted that the previous full-scale meeting between Presidents Aliyev and Putin also took place on the sidelines of the CIS summit a year ago, in October 2024, when nothing foreshadowed “difficulties” in bilateral relations. The friendly and allied relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan fully serves the interests of both countries. It is therefore unsurprising that significant diplomatic efforts are being made today to resolve the situation.
The recent meeting at the summit in Dushanbe met expectations. It was held in a positive tone. Its main outcome is the return of bilateral relations to a constructive path and their full normalization. Moreover, the statements made by Vladimir Putin during the meeting provide grounds to conclude that the most painful issue — the tragedy of the Azerbaijani plane that came under fire from Russian air defenses near the city of Grozny in December 2024 — has been resolved. The Russian President recalled the Ukrainian drones that were in Russian airspace at the time. According to Vladimir Putin, one of the causes of the tragedy was technical failures in Russia’s air defense system itself.
“And the two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane (if they had, it would have crashed on the spot), but exploded, perhaps self-detonated, a few meters away — roughly ten meters. So there was a hit, but primarily not by the warheads themselves, rather likely by debris from the missiles themselves.”
Vladimir Putin assured that “without a doubt, everything required in such tragic cases will be done on the Russian side regarding compensation, and legal assessment will be given to the actions of all responsible officials.”
Finally, the meeting of the heads of state has another outcome, obvious to the Azerbaijani audience. The forces that attempted to completely undermine the constructive relationship between Azerbaijan and Russia have been defeated. These are primarily representatives of the pro-Armenian camp, such as Vladimir Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan, Konstantin Zatulin, and others.
It should be recalled that one of the issues that legitimately concerned Azerbaijan was precisely the activity of anti-Azerbaijani and pro-Armenian forces in Russia, including in the media sphere. Now, following Vladimir Putin’s statements to journalists, this issue has also been clarified.
Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are once again returning to a constructive path. Perhaps the most painful “knot” — the investigation of the AZAL flight tragedy — has been resolved. It has been confirmed that the economic relations between the two countries continued to develop, and mutual national interests will always prevail over narrow-group provocations.
