By Vestnik Kavkaza
The governor of the Astrakhan Region, Alexander Zhilkin, has arrived in Baku on a working visit, where he plans to discuss with President Ilham Aliyev intensification of trade and economic cooperation which is already on the rise, Interfax reports. Azerbaijan is one of the main and traditionally important partners in the Caspian region for the Astrakhan Region.
Obviously, Azerbaijan is developing cooperation not only with the neighboring Russian region. The point is in more global cooperation.
Georgy Fyodorov, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, thinks that Azerbaijan has become a strategic partner of Russia: “Due to tension in international and religious relations in the world, both Russia and Azerbaijan have realized that we have no other path than friendship, good neighborly relations, partnership, joint development, and joint resistance to the challenges which pour gasoline on the whole East.”
According to Fyodorov, “strategic opponents” rejected the policy of soft power: “The last Maidan in Ukraine wasn’t an orange or velvet revolution. The project is going to be shut down. The U.S., the UK, Saudi Arabia are trying to use other methods. Islamic State is a jinn which fulfils the strategic goals of one state, the U.S… There is no Islamic factor in Ukraine, but still it is running toward Nazis.”
Fyodorov thinks this could be a serious destabilizing factor, including for Azerbaijan: “We could see many states which were seriously economically developed, and there was a social sphere, oil dollars were spent appropriately, but a part of the population became infected with the virus. We shouldn’t underestimate threats. I would like to wish the Middle East and Azerbaijan peace. As any conflict, any war in the Caspian region and the CIS, would lead to disastrous consequences.”
