Amid the war in Ukraine, Azerbaijan has become an essential partner for Russia when it comes to both energy exports, and keeping open a transport corridor to Iran. Azerbaijan has managed to achieve something thought to be impossible in the post-Soviet space: the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers ahead of time, and seemingly without angering Moscow. In fact, even as peacekeepers were leaving the long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that was seized by Baku following a one-day war with Armenia in 2023, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev was visiting Moscow. Neither Russian officials nor Russian propaganda outlets have accused Baku of pushing Russia out of the South Caucasus. Instead, they blame Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for recognizing Azerbaijan’s 1991 borders and placing too much trust in Brussels and Washington.
