Azerbaijani experts assess outcomes of Putin’s visit to Baku negatively
The boom created before Putin’s arrival quickly vanished by the end of the visit, says Azerbaijani political analyst Gabil Huseynli, reports Azerbaijani news agency APA. Huseynli believes that Azerbaijan had certain hopes with Russia in return for Azerbaijan’s promise to certain compromises.
Political scientist Vafa Guluzade assumes that Russia could offer Eurasian and Customs Union to Azerbaijan, however, “that decision can cost too much for Azerbaijan.”
“Any union with Russia is designed for elections only. The government wants Russia and its supporters to recognize the results of the past elections. Russia wants us to let her put a rope around our neck for that. It’s a tough choice,” the analyst notes and adds, “In any case, it seems that no such decisions were made during Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan,” reports the Minval.az.
The chairman of an opposition party “Musavat” Isa Gambar also thinks that neither of the parties reached the desired outcomes at Putin’s and Aliev’s meeting.
“Kremlin tries to engage Azerbaijan into its Eurasian projects, while Baku seeks Moscow’s support for the pre-election period. I think these were the questions discussed behind the closed doors,” says the leader of Musavat party, Turan reports.
To the question whether Aliyev received Moscow’s support before the elections or not, Gambar responded that “complete support is impossible, as Ilham Aliyev doesn’t fulfill all demands of Moscow.”
Head of Petroleum Research Center of Azerbaijan Ilham Shaban commented on the signing of the framework agreement between the parties for a period of five years. The agreement supposes cooperation between Rosneft and SOCAR in different directions.
Shaban explains that if foreign companies want to purchase assets in Azerbaijan, they sign a framework agreement with SOCAR. “In the meantime, parties prepare further commercial points for the future agreement. If the points are negotiated among each other, the contract is signed. The framework agreement loses its legal power by the expiration of the term. To be brief, framework agreements are legally not binding, there are no concrete agreements about specific projects,” adds Shaban.
According to Turan agency, the head of Azerbaijani research center “East-West” Arastun Orujlu believes that Putin didn’t achieve his goals during the visit. “It can be supposed that the main aim was to engage Azerbaijan into Eurasian and Customs Union, however the big share of Azerbaijan’s foreign trade takes place with other countries of the world. That’s why the given Union is unreal,” he said.