Pushkov: Azerbaijan will never trade Russia for US

"Azerbaijan will not sacrifice its relations with Russia for the sake of relations with the US, but will not miss the opportunity to participate in profitable Western economic projects," the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alexey Pushkov, said today during a press conference.

"I do not think that Azerbaijan will sacrifice its relations with Russia for the sake of relations with the United States. We have a common border, we have historically close and very good relations between the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples. The Azerbaijani government is aware of this and based on the fact that Russia is interested in stability and balanced political process, rather than coups in countries that coexist with us. So I do not see any threat to the economic projects that Azerbaijan has with the West. I do not see any threat to Azerbaijan's relations with Russia," the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs noted.

"I do not think that Azerbaijan's participation in any project that involves the Western states is automatically negative for Russia. It would be strange for Azerbaijan not to consider profitable opportunities," Alexey Pushkov noted, at the same time emphasizing the stability of the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan.

"We are very stable. It seems to me that the work of the US Embassy in Baku raises a number of issues, in particular, the political aspects of this activity. The theme of the 'orange revolution' in American foreign policy has not been ruled out. And I think that the persistence with which the United States helps 'orange revolutions' in a number of countries is taken into account by the Azerbaijani leadership when it builds its relations with the United States. Therefore, relations with the US are quite a contradictory thing. That is, on the one hand there can be beneficial aspects, but on the other hand it can be quite dangerous for the state," the head of the Duma Committee concluded.