Russia's President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, according to the statement posted on the Azerbaijani presidential official website.
Ilham Aliyev congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in the elections, and wished him success in his activities for the well-being of the people of Russia.
President of Azerbaijan noted that under Putin`s leadership Russia made great strides in different areas, and hailed overall development of Azerbaijan-Russia relations. Ilham Aliyev expressed his confidence that relations between the two countries will continue to strengthen. President of Azerbaijan once again wished Vladimir Putin success in his presidential activities.
"Vladimir Putin thanked President Ilham Aliyev for the attention and congratulations. The Russian President said that built on mutual trust, Russia-Azerbaijan relations today cover many areas and develop successfully. President of Russia expressed his confidence that the bilateral relations will continue to expand and strengthen," the statement posted on the presidential website says.
In addition, the presidents discussed prospects for Moscow-Baku relations based on strategic partnership.
According to preliminary data provided by Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), incumbent Russian President Vladimir is headed for a landslide victory in the presidential race having garnered 76.66% with 99.84% of ballots counted.
Head of the expert council of Baku Network, Elkhan Alasgarov, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian President is the key to maintaining good-neighborly relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. "The years when Putin and Aliyev stood at the helm of Russia and Azerbaijan are characterized by the strengthening of bilateral relations that have taken the form of strategic cooperation," he said.
"Numerous attempts by various forces to destroy our relations are failing time after time, and this is due to the fact that Russia has Vladimir Putin. It is necessary to note the high level of cooperation between our countries not only in politics but also in the economy, military-technical sphere, education and other sectors. Live contacts with Russia please us. In Azerbaijan there is a large Russian-speaking community, as well as a large Azerbaijani community in Russia, and the stability of human relations, of course, is possible only with mutual understanding between the states. The most important trade routes, geopolitical and geostrategic projects, including the North-South transport corridor, were laid by the leaders of our countries, I think that Vladimir Putin's re-election as president is an element of stability that causes only positive assessments among Azerbaijani politicians, experts and common citizens," Elkhan Alasgarov stressed.
The Deputy Director General of the Trend information agency, political commentator Arzu Nagiyev, agreed with Alasgarov. "The relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are friendly. And the most important thing is that the relations between the top officials, including Mr. Putin and Ilham Aliyev, have always been excellent as well. So I think that Putin's re-election as Russian president will only affect the positive side of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. In particular, we have such an important unresolved problem as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia is one of the key figures in the OSCE, and we can expect that there will positive developments in this issue during new Putin's term," he said.
"In general, the reelection of Mr. Putin means that his positive and constructive course towards Azerbaijan will continue in the future. I think that we will see only positive developments in all spheres - political, economic, technical, taking into account the existing contracts for the supply of Russian arms to Azerbaijan. Our region has been implemented large-scale economic projects, and such platforms as Azerbaijan-Russia-Turkey and Azerbaijan-Iran-Russia, were created recently, and cooperation in such formats will only have a positive impact on the relations between Moscow and Baku. Therefore, we can congratulate Mr. Putin on winning the elections and expect that our countries' cooperation will increasingly develop in the future," Arzu Nagiyev summarized.
