Not everyone in Azerbaijan is happy with Vladimir Putin's visit. This is due to both historical memory and the war in Ukraine. But Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev welcomes his colleague into a family circle, and the pro-government press, proud of Azerbaijanis fighting for Ukraine, is now praising Putin, the BBC summarized.
"Russia's propaganda machine can't even name the Alley of Martyrs, where people killed by its army are buried.". Thus, an Azerbaijani blogger was outraged that Russia Today wrote that the Russian president laid flowers in front of the eternal fire at the memorial to the victims of World War II.
In fact, he laid flowers in front of the eternal flame on the Alley of Martyrs, in memory of the victims of the January 1990 pro-independence rallies broken up by the Soviet army with combat weapons and tanks. More than a hundred people were then killed. In the last seconds of the video of the Russian propagandists, rows of graves are even visible behind the Russian leader.
This event is known in Baku as "Black January" and nationalists sometimes recall it as a reason to dislike Russia, which was then trying to stop the collapse of its empire by force.
Putin is not greeted on the streets of Baku with Russian flags. But it cannot be said that Russia or Putin are perceived sharply negatively in Azerbaijan, things are rather complicated.
When Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine begins in February 2022, spontaneous rallies in support of Ukraine take place in Baku. This is uncharacteristic of Azerbaijan, where the police usually crack down on even solitary rallies. But here the police stood aside when the activists came to the Ukrainian and then to the Russian embassy.
Although Azerbaijan has not made any official statements regarding the war in Ukraine, it has sent humanitarian aid there, and the Azerbaijani press has given a positive account of the fact that Azerbaijanis are fighting on the side of Ukraine. They are really there - in the "Aidar" battalion, in the "Georgian" battalion. and in other parts, and even received the titles of Heroes of Ukraine.
Some observers argue that Azerbaijan cannot openly support Ukraine because the Azerbaijani economy is closely tied to Russia.
Before the pandemic and the war, the number of people entering Russia from Azerbaijan exceeded the number of people leaving Russia and heading to Azerbaijan by at least 10,000 people annually on average.
According to the data of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, both before the war and now, Russia is in first place among the countries from which people come to Azerbaijan. In 2023, they were more than 600 thousand people.
Russia accounts for two thirds of Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover with the CIS countries ($4.4 billion). A number of major Russian businessmen from Azerbaijan maintain close ties with their Caucasian homeland.
Among them is, for example, the businessman Farhad Akhmedov, whose alleged phone conversation about Putin was leaked on the Internet last year. And the ex-husband of the daughter of the Azerbaijani president, Emin Agalarov, is the son of the Russian businessman Araz Agalarov, owner of "Crocus City Hall".
Also in Baku, unlike Yerevan and Tbilisi, in many universities and almost every school there is an opportunity to study entirely in Russian. And knowledge of the Russian language is often necessary to get a high-paying job in the capital.
Thus, despite all the differences, there is no strong hostility to Putin in Azerbaijan, and the same pro-government press, which is proud of the soldiers fighting on the side of Ukraine, speaks warmly of the Russian president, calling him a friend of Azerbaijan.
He has come on a state visit, while his Azerbaijani counterpart and his wife receive him as a private guest, and Putin sits relaxed at the table with his shirt unbuttoned.