Moscow deployed a rude deputy from Baku: Is it time to respond harshly?

A new rift has occurred between Russia and Azerbaijan. After the tragic incident in Russian airspace with a passenger liner carrying out a Baku —Grozny flight on December 25, 2024 and crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, as well as the subsequent closure of the Russian House in the Azerbaijani capital, another unpleasant situation arose in bilateral relations. This time with the participation of one of the parliamentarians from the Transcaucasian republic.

Azer Badamov, a deputy of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis, was detained at Moscow airport last Sunday and was not allowed to board a flight to Astrakhan, where he was heading as part of an official delegation to participate in events dedicated to the anniversary of the birth of the former President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. The legislator from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party returned to his homeland on the same day.

Badamov was banned from entering the Russia without explanation, the Azerbaijani media reported. At the same time, they immediately issued a version about the reason for such a step by the Russian side. It is assumed that he is connected with the harsh statements of the deputy to the member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Nikolai Valuev.

In February of this year, Badamov reacted in very politically incorrect terms to Valuev's comments to Azerbaijan and the citizens of the republics who are in Baku was considered "offensive." The Azerbaijani MP on his Facebook page❶ issued the following text:

"If you try to artistically depict the average representative of "shobla", then the portrait of Nikolai Valuev is best suited for this. It is enough to look at the anthropological type of this creature to understand that this is a rare exhibit of a dead-end branch of evolution, stuck somewhere between a Neanderthal and Homo sapiens in its development."

Badamov allowed himself such personal insults to his Russian colleague after Valuev commented on the news about the closure of the Russian House in Baku in his telegram channel, using the expression "shobla-obla" in relation to Azerbaijanis. He also called for checking the activities of Azerbaijani communities in Russia:

"Calmly, with an understanding of the political and power support within our Russian state, without swearing and shouting, we drive all this nonsense through the sieve of the law."

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted to this by declaring the State Duma deputy from United Russia persona non grata. The press secretary of the republic's Foreign Ministry, Aykhan Hajizade, then stated that "insulting and threatening statements by Nikolai Valuev addressed to Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people are absolutely unacceptable. As a result, the name of the famous Russian boxer, and now a parliamentarian, was on the list of persons who are banned from entering Azerbaijan.

At the same time, Baku recalled that Valuev is not the only Russian deputy on the Azerbaijani "black list": two more United Russia deputies Konstantin Zatulin and Vitaly Milonov were previously included there. The latter was enrolled in the ranks of undesirable persons for the Azerbaijani authorities back in October 2020, at the height of the second Karabakh war, for his "pro-Armenian" position.

On February 3, Azerbaijan officially notified the Russian side of the termination of the Russian House's activities in Baku, citing the fact that the organization was not registered as a legal entity. This was preceded by a wave of publications and reports "from the scene" raised in the Azerbaijani media, the main message of which was that the Russian House allegedly became the "intelligence center" of Russia in Azerbaijan, engaged in "espionage."

However, it immediately became clear that the initiative to bring such charges came from the Azerbaijani authorities, local publications acted according to the "order" lowered from above.

There was also no doubt that the decision of the republic's leadership was a kind of demonstration of its discontent with the actions of the Russian side after the December 25 air incident.

The head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Yevgeny Primakov, expressed hope that Baku would eventually make a reasonable decision. He said that Moscow has repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan with a request to help with registration, but has not received a response.

The press secretary of the head of the Russian state, Dmitry Peskov, called the closure of the Russian House in Baku is a "misunderstanding."

"We believe that this is a misunderstanding that will be resolved as a result of bilateral contacts," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Nikolai Valuev spoke much more sharply, expressing solidarity in the aforementioned publication in his TG channel, with the opinion that "kindness is perceived as weakness" and "it's time to respond harshly." This opinion was shared by blogger Vladislav Pozdnyakov.

"Now is a great time to eliminate the Aliyev diaspora in Russia: Namely, to deprive them of business (in a simple way to take them away), find an excuse for this and take away their large assets. Those who received Russian citizenship should be put on military registration and at the front. If they refuse, they will be deprived of citizenship. Who does not have a passport of the Russian Federation — thoroughly check how much their stay in Russia legally. There is no reason to deport. To introduce a visa regime with Azerbaijan. It's time to be responsible for the positions of the sovereign, not the patient! For three years it has long been possible to understand one thing that kindness is perceived as weakness. It's time to respond harshly," Pozdnyakov wrote.

In his own comment to this post, Valuev showed restraint and did not repeat the statement about the "Aliyev diaspora in Russia", which, apparently, most of all hurt the feelings of officials in Baku was interpreted by them as an "insult". On the contrary, the Russian parliamentarian urged "to put aside emotions and do your own thing."

"It's really possible to lose friends quickly, situational allies go away even faster. In fact, in politics, what kind of friends can there be at all ... Situational relations in the Caucasus and the Middle East have always been the basis of the foundations. Flexibility is certainly loved there. Especially at the bazaar. But deflections are perceived exclusively unilaterally.… And now don't talk about xenophobia and the loosening of the common boat of peoples. Let's leave it for textbooks that are in the same Azerbaijan (which was allegedly occupied in the 20s of the last century according to their new style), as well as in the school history courses of our other eastern and Asian neighbors. So compliance, to be more precise, is perceived there as a weakness. Elements of their influence in In Russia, these are diasporas... and there is illegal migration, tax evasion, raiding and other interesting things… Calmly, with an understanding of the political and power support within our Russian state, without swearing and shouting, we drive all this nonsense through the sieve of the law ... To talk officially on the basis of charters and responsibilities under a social contract. Again, without emotion. We are not at the bazaar," Valuev's publication said in particular.

It should be recalled that four days after the tragedy with the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane over Grozny (December 29 in an interview with AzTV), President Ilham Aliyev made a number of rather harsh statements, from which it followed by subtext that there were actually no open questions for Baku in what had happened. Without even waiting for the completion of the preliminary investigation, the Azerbaijani leader claimed that the air incident was the fault of the Russian side, which, at the time of the alleged defeat of the passenger liner by air defense means, repelled another attack by drones launched by the Kiev regime. At the same time, Aliyev outlined three conditions for resolving the situation around the crash of the aircraft, mentioning the need to receive an official apology from Moscow, punishment of the perpetrators and compensation. The Russian side fulfilled the first condition, as Aliyev himself stated at the time, almost immediately.

It seems that the demands to punish the perpetrators, to pay compensation, coupled with the statement of "proof of Russia's guilt" and the expressed willingness to apply to international arbitration, then highlighted Baku's inclination to extract maximum benefit from the incident for itself. Namely, the benefit of a political nature. As some analysts in the South Caucasus have suggested, in this way the Azerbaijani leadership is trying to enlist a serious "trump card" in building further relations with Russia, which could be "sold more dearly" when solving a particular issue with the specified maximum benefit for the authorities of the republic.

As for the closure of the Russian House, this was a continuation of the same "offensive" manner of Baku in dealing with Moscow in recent years.

Now it is time for Russia to respond, and not constantly restrain itself. But it's up to the responsible bodies of the world power to decide how tough it is. Whether by expelling garrulous Azerbaijani deputies or in some other way, but by all means respond. Otherwise, "kindness is perceived as weakness" and some partners from neighboring countries hastened to imagine themselves invulnerable.

❶Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation