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The previous day of Vladimir Putin’s visit to Baku on August 13 Azerbaijani service of “Radio Liberty” conducted a survey among the residents of Baku on the topic of how dependant Azerbaijan is from Russia and whether that dependence has a negative or positive effect on relations of the two countries. The opinions split. A number of residents insisted that Azerbaijan does not depend on Russia at the moment due to its resources, in particular, oil production. In their opinion, Azerbaijan can take care of itself and be entirely independent from Russia.

Another group of residents is convinced that Azerbaijan can’t do without the Russian influence: “Economic, political and even legal dependence is very big. Looking at the legislation of Azerbaijan, you will notice that they are all copied from the Russian legislation. It means that there are powers that force Milli Mejlis to copy those laws,” states a Baku resident.

Another participant of the survey believes that Azerbaijan depends on Russia not politically, but economically, because the imports from Russia have a big demand in Azerbaijan. In the meantime, the Baku resident insists that agricultural production of Azerbaijan is meant for the Russian market.

“We are in no way connected to the European market, as we don’t produce anything for them. Consequently, it is natural that we depend on the Russian market. Besides, we are geographically located very close to Russia, a big number of our compatriots live in Russia. They have achieved success in business specifically in Russia. Russia is the closest country to us out of all former CIS states. We are strongly dependant on Russia, a big share of the economic development in Azerbaijan is closely linked to Russia,” says the resident.