In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make an official visit to Azerbaijan, said recently the current Press Attaché for the President of Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov. He also added that the exact dates will be announced in the near future.
Putin’s visit before the scheduled presidential elections in Azerbaijan in the fall, if it really occurs, can be considered as another slap by a strategic ally directed to Armenia, because lots of information about Putin’s visit to Yerevan before the last presidential elections in Armenia, continuous news about the dates and preparation of the visit were circulated but never happened. Regarding the visit of Putin to Armenia, it was written a number of times that it is postponed, and now no one is talking about it.
Meanwhile, information is already published in the media about the agenda topics of Putin’s upcoming visit to Baku. There is a belief that Moscow will try to enter the energy market of Azerbaijan, and the visit, in this sense, could become a turning point. The desire of Russian’s side is considered to be key, to participate in the operation of “Absheron” gas field discovered two years ago, – informed Reuters news, adding that Russian leading oil company, the Rusoil (Роснефть) wants to be part of this project.
But this is not all, Russian media, in their turn, also inform that Rusoil company is not going to be limited with negotiations only around Absheron gas field. Kommersant (Коммерсант) daily announced that during Putin’s visit the leadership of Rusoil is going to raise the issue of acquisition of shares of already exploited “Shah Deniz 2” mine. According to the Russian periodical, the leaders of the Russian company has already reached an agreement with the British Petroleum oil company regarding the cooperation in the third countries. “If Putin manages to convince the Azerbaijani side, which along with Western energy companies, Russian capital also has a lot to do here, it will be a major diplomatic victory for Moscow,” – wrote the Russian periodical.
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Thus, as a result of Russian-Azerbaijan agreements concluded in 2010-2011 in the military sector, after the noise of selling offensive arms of one billion dollars to Azerbaijani, now the Russian-Azerbaijani relations can be shifted into the phase of energy and economic mutual beneficial cooperation. Definitely, if what the official Moscow plans to do happen, then we can not doubt that the authorities of Azerbaijan will worthily protect their own interest in the transactions of the energy sector in terms of cooperation. Let’s recall, at least, the negotiations extended over several years around Gabala radar station. On December, 2012, the Russian side ceased the operation of the station because the official Baku required $ 300 million per year, instead of the previously existing $ 7 million fee.
As for the Russian-Azerbaijani military cooperation, then everything in this issue is so far ahead … If so far over one billion dollars of offensive weapons was sold to Azerbaijan by Russia, according to accepted documents, yet the Russian side is to sell another two billion dollars of weapon to Azerbaijan.
No matter how long the statements are voiced that the rise in gas price in Armenia, selling of weapons to Azerbaijan, is the “Moscow business”, it’s all the same, yet no one has justified as to what logic the Armenian side, Armenian society actually suffer as a result of Armenian-Russian transactions, and Baku benefits in Russian-Azerbaijani transactions. Recently, in an interview with Gala , the former Prime Minister of Armenia, NA MP Hrant Badratyan expressed such an idea: “… we can not enter into negotiations with the European Union just because there is Russian weapon in our territory.”
Not disputing the former RA Prime Minister’s arguments and economic concerns, with regard to the EU, concerning the economic future of the Euro zone, however, a question arises whether, namely, Armenia, which started from independent appeared in isolation by two neighbors, now because of the presence of ‘the Russian weapons’ must continue withdrawing from other beneficial economic opportunities and prospects? As it is said by people’s language, “we are in fire” only for the fact that the Russian military base is located in the territory of our country…
Should we pay such a high price for the presence of Russian military base in Gyumri …?
Emma GABRIELYAN
