Orkhan Sattarov exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The prolonged bargaining on the rent price for the radiolocation station Darial in the Azerbaijani town of Qabala is ended for Russia. Reports published by some Russian mass media citing "informed sources" on achievement of a compromise appeared to be a fake. The Azerbaijani website Day.az referring to its sources in the Azerbaijani government stated that negotiators are too far from a compromise. However, the negotiations have been rather intensive in recent time, according to the foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mamedyarov. Soon foreign ministries of two countries officially confirmed that the sides hadn't reached an agreement, and Russia is to leave the Qabala radar station.
Therefore, the issue was eliminated from the agenda of Russian-Azerbaijani relation, even though it was thought to be a key question in 2012. Of course the outcome is not the one which Moscow has expected. It is not clear whether Baku proceeded from commerce reasons, as officials say, or the key role was played by a political component. Anyway leaving of Russia from the Qabala RLS was organized in a delicate form for minimization of tension in bilateral relations. Harsh provocative steps toward the north neighbor are not typical for the pragmatic administration of Azerbaijan. "Russia counted its revenues, expenses and decided to leave the Qabala radar station. We and the Azerbaijani side respect this decision. This issue cannot and will not worsen relations between Azerbaijan and Russia," the deputy executive secretary of the ruling party Mubariz Gurbanly told Trend. The same view is shared by Ali Akhmedov, the second man in the party New Azerbaijan after PresidentIlham Aliyev. Other political activists of Azerbaijan have similar opinions. The general sense of all statements is that Russia's withdrawal from the Qabala RLS doesn't harm Russian-Azerbaijani relations.
"Since Azerbaijan got independence and till now the republic cooperates with Russia in all spheres, and many successes have been achieved for throughout these years," the deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration Novruz Mamedov told Trend. According to him, cooperation continues. "As for negotiations on the Qabala RLS, they have been being conducted for several months. Our aim was to level up cooperation on this station to demands of the current world. We provide cooperation with Russia within the existing world conditions and would like to continue this, i.e. to increase the rent price of the RLS to international standards," Novruz Mamedov said.
While Azerbaijan focuses on the fact that relations with Russia won't worsen, Russia pays attention to the fact that its security won't suffer from leaving the RLS. The press secretary of Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, said about this: "Russia has potential to compensate not using the Qabala radiolocation station in Azerbaijan." Pesknov stated that "it is up to experts to close it or not, but all necessary measures for Russia's security - technological and infrastructural - have been taken."
Russian military men confirm this view. The decision was made considering absence of necessity in the RLS practical using; old radar stations are replaces by stations of the new generation Voronezh, the Russian Ministry of Defense told RIA Novosti on Tuesday. Thus, if we speak in terms of objective economic and security interests of two countries, they won't suffer from Russia's withdrawal from the Qabala radiolocation station.
