The Kremlin announced a meeting between Putin and Aliyev

The first meeting in a long time between Russian and Azerbaijani leaders Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev will take place today in Dushanbe. Moscow expects to discuss issues in the two countries' relations.

As reported by the " Caucasian Knot ," on October 7, Ilham Aliyev called Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his birthday, amid deteriorating relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. "During the telephone conversation, an exchange of views took place on the current state and prospects of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia," the Azerbaijani side reported.

Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev intend to meet in Dushanbe today. The two leaders agreed to this during a "positive and constructive" telephone conversation on October 7, according to Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

"We'll see the results of this meeting. We're optimistic in this regard," TASS quoted Peskov as saying. The Russian side, he added, hopes that Putin and Aliyev will discuss the current state of bilateral relations and "discuss the existing problematic issues."

Putin previously arrived in Tajikistan. He will participate in the Russia-Central Asia summit and a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, RIA Novosti reports.

The planned bilateral meeting will be the first in a year—Putin and Aliyev have not met since October 2024, Kommersant notes.

As a reminder, on September 3, Putin and Aliyev met in Beijing at celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but they refrained from speaking, limiting themselves to greetings. "President Aliyev and I greeted him and his wife today.  We exchanged a few words ," Putin said that day.

On September 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia had fully compensated for the plane and transferred insurance payments to most of the families of the victims.  Insurance payments and compensation should not be confused  , the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry countered. Compensation payments for the downing of a foreign aircraft are customary in international relations, subject to an admission of guilt for the disaster. Russia  chose not to admit guilt , but to consider the crash of the AZAL airliner an accident, which is why the insurance payments are being made, according to lawyers. 

The latest deterioration in relations between the two countries has been marked by ethnic raids in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan. Baku accuses Russian authorities of extrajudicial killings of Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report " Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia ."

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/416159