Mekhman Aliev: serious results of Putin's visit to Baku are doubtful

Azerbaijani experts have different opinions about the August 13 visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Baku. According to political analyst Rasim Musabekov, the visit meant a resumption of a top-level dialogue. In his turn, Mekhman Aliev, Director of the Azerbaijani News Agency "Turan", asserts that the signed agreements are not first-order ones.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan on August 13, accompanied by a large governmental delegation, including the heads of the Foreign Ministry, Ministry for Emergencies, Ministry of Defence, and a number of other agencies, as well as heads of oil companies "Rosneft" and "LUKoil". The talks focused on development of military-technical cooperation, settlement of Karabakh conflict, development of the legal status of the Caspian Sea and other topics of mutual interest, said Vladimir Putin at a press conference after the talks.

In the opinion of the political scientist Rasim Musabekov, a member of the foreign policy committee of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, the visit of the Russian president marked the "end of the pause taken by Moscow in the bilateral top-level dialogue." He believes that the pause was caused by revaluation of Russian policy in the region as a whole, and in relation to Azerbaijan in particular.

According to Zafar Guliev, an Azerbaijani political scientist and a member of the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), any equal partnership of Azerbaijan with the current Russian authorities is impossible.

He believes that "the aim of Putin's visit was to persuade Azerbaijan to join the Customs Union and take part in the project of the Eurasian Union."

"The rapprochement with Russia against the background of deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington will mean for Baku setting itself up against the West, in particular, against the United States," Vafa Guluzade, a former state adviser on foreign policy, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The analyst Guseinbala Salimov believes that Azerbaijan will only agree to participate in the Eurasian and Customs Unions, "if it receives guarantees from Moscow that the Karabakh conflict will be settled within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity."