Tensions have sharpened between the capitalist rulers of Russia and Azerbaijan since the end of June after Russian cops, who were investigating a murder case from 2001, detained over 50 Azerbaijani nationals in Yekaterinburg in central Russia. Two died in custody. The Azerbaijani government in Baku accuses Russian authorities of having them beaten to death.
It canceled all scheduled Russian visits and activities. Azerbaijani police then raided the Baku offices of the Russian state-controlled media outlet Sputnik Azerbaijan June 30. Several employees were detained. Its editor and director were accused of spying.
A day later, Azerbaijani cops arrested eight Russians, accusing them of cybercrimes and smuggling drugs from Iran. They appeared in court handcuffed, bruised and bloodied.
Political relations between the two governments have been fraying as the rulers of Azerbaijan increased their influence in the Caucuses, a region long dominated by Moscow. Baku was buoyed by the victory of its forces in the 2023 war, seizing the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia.
Azerbaijan and Armenia were Soviet republics until the fall of the Soviet Union 34 years ago. As conflicts between the two now-independent countries have sharpened since 2020, Moscow shifted its allegiance from the government in Armenia to Baku, but its hold over both is weakening. That’s reflected by shifts in Baku’s stance toward Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Azerbaijan’s rulers now refer to Ukrainian areas seized by Moscow as “occupied” and send humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Tensions between Moscow and Baku rose further after the Vladimir Putin regime accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani passenger jet late last year. The plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people out of 67 on board. While the Russian president offered condolences, he refused Baku’s demand for Moscow to take responsibility for the crash.
Bolsheviks for self-determination
Azerbaijan’s state TV channel recently said to Putin, “You are used to dominating peoples who were forcibly included in Russia.” It continued, “Whether in czarist or Soviet times, Russians considered themselves the master race, while others were second-class citizens.”
In fact, after the Bolshevik-led Russian Revolution in 1917, self-determination was granted to Azerbaijan and other nations in the former czarist empire. Azerbaijan and Armenia were part of an autonomous Transcaucasian Federation in 1922. Both voluntarily joined the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
This produced a flowering of culture in both republics. But these gains were reversed during a counterrevolution headed by Joseph Stalin, which reimposed Great Russian chauvinism on the oppressed peoples in the Caucuses and elsewhere. (The story of these developments is explained in more detail in the Nov. 23, 2020, issue of the Militant.)
“In today’s Russia, chauvinism, discrimination and Islamophobia are now open and state-enabled,” Tural Ganjali, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, said recently. “Migrants and non-Russians are coerced into war, threatened and blackmailed. This is a widespread policy, orchestrated and encouraged by the Russian government.”
The Azerbaijani government has reduced its reliance on Moscow and expanded its alliances to include the governments in China, Israel, Turkey and Pakistan. The Turkish regime has emerged as a stronger power in the Caucuses as Moscow’s influence has waned.
The growth of Azerbaijan’s oil exports, partly a consequence of imperialist sanctions against Russian oil and gas, has also strengthened Baku’s hand. It has continued supplying Israel with oil, despite pressure to stop from the Turkish government.
Baku has had close relations with Israel for over 30 years. Azerbaijan even increased oil sales to Israel to half its production after Israel launched a defensive war against Hamas and to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons.
About two-thirds of the Azerbaijani rulers’ imported military equipment is from Israel. Their rapid victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh war was aided by Israeli drones and other military technology. Baku seeks today to become more of an independent player in the political shifts underway in the region.