Deaths of ethnic Azerbaijanis rounded up by police for decades-old murders in a Russian metropolis. The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that Baku blamed on Moscow. Growing ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, along with waning Russian affect in the troubled South Caucasus area.
These are among the components that have led to the escalating tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation where President Ilhan Aliyev has been in energy since 2003 — nearly as long as the 25-year rule of Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Here is a look at the beforehand heat relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan and what has occurred:
Economic ties between Russia and Azerbaijan
Russia and Azerbaijan developed robust financial and cultural ties after 1993 when Aliyev’s father, Heydar, who also was Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era Communist boss, grew to become president. Like Putin, the youthful Aliyev has suppressed political foes and restricted unbiased media.
Azerbaijan has purchased oil and natural gasoline from Russia to meet inside demand while exporting its own vitality riches to the West. Russia also has been the principal market for Azerbaijan’s fruit and vegetable exports. It also is a key transport hall for Russia’s commerce with Iran and other companions in the Middle East.
Azerbaijani businessmen control important belongings in construction, real estate, commerce and other sectors of the Russian economic system.
Russia is home to a sizable Azerbaijani diaspora. A 2021 census listed about a half-million ethnic Azerbaijanis dwelling in Russia, but unofficial estimates put that quantity as high as 2 million.
Relations with Baku have become more and more important for the Kremlin since it despatched troops into Ukraine in 2022, particularly as Turkey has become a key financial associate for Russia as it confronted sweeping Western sanctions.
The Karabakh separatist battle
Just before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an open confrontation erupted between two of its former republics in the South Caucasus — Azerbaijan and its neighbor, Armenia. After years of combating, Armenian-backed separatists won control of Azerbaijan’s area of Karabakh and close by territories.
Russia claimed neutrality in the battle even though it offered financial help and equipped weapons to Armenia that hosted its navy base. Moscow cosponsored peace talks under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but they did not produce a deal.
In 2020, Azerbaijan’s navy, bolstered by weapons equipped by ally Turkey, recaptured broad swaths of territory that were held for practically three a long time by Armenian forces. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the area.
Azerbaijan reclaimed full control of Karabakh in September 2023 after a lightning navy marketing campaign. Russia, busy with its battle in Ukraine, didn’t intervene, angering Armenia’s management that responded by scaling down its ties with Moscow and bolstering relations with the West.
The victory in Karabakh has fueled Azerbaijan’s ambitions and prompted Aliyev to take a more assertive stand in relations with his neighbors.
The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight
On Dec. 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was unintentionally hit by fire from Russian air defenses, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard.
Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging accountability. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticized Moscow for attempting to “hush up” the incident.
In May, Aliyev declined to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow alongside other leaders of ex-Soviet nations. Later that month, a Ukrainian overseas minister visited Baku, a signal of nearer ties with Kyiv.
Police raids lead to heightened tensions
On June 27, police raided the properties of several ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest metropolis, in what authorities said was half of an investigation into murders relationship back a long time. Brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov died and several other ethnic Azerbaijanis were severely injured.
The our bodies were despatched to Azerbaijan, where authorities attributed the deaths to “post-traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries.” The Prosecutor General’s Office said the brothers were subjected to beatings and other bodily abuse by Russian police.
Azerbaijan responded by calling off beforehand scheduled Russian official visits and cultural occasions.
On Monday, masked police stormed the Baku workplaces of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-funded media outlet, and arrested seven of its staff. Police also rounded up eight other Russian IT specialists and other professionals, who were accused of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Images of the detainees, who did not have any identified prison document, confirmed their faces were badly bruised. The photographs prompted outrage in Russia where many hawkish commentators accused Azerbaijan of treating Russians as hostages and urged a robust response.
Russia on Tuesday briefly detained the chief of the Azerbaijani group in Yekaterinburg for interrogation. A video on Russian social media confirmed particular forces breaking the home windows of his vehicle, dragging him and his son out, and making them lie face down on the pavement. A outstanding member of the Azerbaijani diaspora also was arrested in Voronezh in southern Russia.
Tough speak from Baku and Moscow
Azerbaijan strongly condemned what it called “the demonstrative and deliberate acts of extrajudicial killing and violence” by Russian police following the deaths in Yekaterinburg.
After the arrests of the Sputnik staff and other Russians in Baku, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador to protest “the recent unfriendly actions of Baku and the intentional steps of the Azerbaijani side aimed to dismantle bilateral relations.”
Azerbaijan shot back by summoning the Russian ambassador to demand a probe into the deaths, punishment for those accountable and compensation for the victims — steps it said were “crucial for eliminating the negative atmosphere in bilateral relations.” It shrugged off Moscow’s complaints about the arrests of Russians in Baku
Aliyev mentioned the tensions with Russia in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an act that appeared designed to rile the Kremlin. Zelenskyy said he expressed support for Baku “in a situation where Russia is bullying Azerbaijani citizens and threatening the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Asked about the call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that “Ukraine will do everything possible to add fuel to the fire and provoke the Azerbaijani side to continue emotional actions.”
Peskov famous that the head of Russia’s high investigative company has been in contact with Azerbaijan’s chief prosecutor. He wouldn’t say if Putin would communicate to Aliyev to defuse the disaster.
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