“Heydar Aliyev knew the Sverdlovsk region very well”

Eduard Rossel says

By Vestnik Kavkaza

This spring the delegation of the Sverdlovsk Region visited Baku and discussed the launching of joint productions in Azerbaijan. The governor of the Russian region, Yeugeny Kuivashev, stated that “it is time to step into a new level of interrelations. We have presented projects on establishing joint enterprises, i.e. Russian investments into productions on the Azerbaijani territories.”

The development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Sverdlovsk region is based on the Agreement on Trade and Economic, Scientific and Technical, and Cultural Cooperation which was signed by the sides in 2006. It will operate until 2016. At the time the governor of the Sverdlovsk region was Eduard Rossel. “I've been to Baku many times and we discussed with Heydar Aliyev those difficult years, the nineties, 1993, the collapse... The fact is that both us, being well prepared, understood what was happening. He was a member of the Politburo and was responsible for industry. He knew the industry of the Sverdlovsk region very well. And when we met, we discussed it in detail, I even had the impression that he lived in the Sverdlovsk region and not in Baku, that is how well he knew the industry,” Rossel told Vestnik Kavkaza.

“The Sverdlovsk region is truly unique, and I remember him telling me: "There is no man left in Russia who knows what the Sverdlovsk region is," Rossel recalls. “All of my visits to Baku are linked to my memories about him. We were the ones who established the consulate, it was quickly opened. We signed an agreement on cooperation between the Sverdlovsk region and Azerbaijan. This agreement is still working. And I think that the recently-appointed governor [Yevgeny Kuivashev] is an educated, intelligent man... I think the tendency will continue.”

According to Kuivashev, the Sverdlovsk region takes one of leading positions, according to the Azerbaijani population. More than 50 thousand Azerbaijanis live in the region. The Azerbaijani Diaspora contributes a lot to harmonization of relations, the development of tolerance, the improvement of peace and consent in the Ural.