Moscow State University has held a meeting between students and the head of the news agency, Trend. Ilgar Guseynov and the students discussed issues of Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation in information exchange, the upcoming parliament elections in Azerbaijan and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries.
After that they held a round table on Russian-Azerbaijani ties, modernization of political systems and elites in Azerbaijan and other CIS countries. Experts and officials from the Azerbaijani embassy and the Heydar Aliyev Fund were at the meeting. The Editor-in-Chief of the news agency Vestnik Kavkaza, Alexey Vlasov, was the moderator of the round table.
Participants of the forum believe that there will be no major disputes
at the elections on November 7. Expert Grigoriy Trofimchuk said that
the changes the opposition offers are the most interesting aspect of
the elections. But he said that so far the opposition fails to propose
anything constructive. The expert believes that prediction of risks
and challenges in the South Caucasus and Central Asia should lie in
political modernization.
Stanislav Pritchin characterized the Azerbijani model as conservative
with active economic development but slow political modernization.
Ilgar Guseynov answered questions concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, relations with Georgia, the role of youth studying abroad,
political modernization and economic development. He said that the
number of business managers has risen in Azerbaijan.
Concluding the talks, Vlasov noted that the societies are entering the
stage of change and transformation. Conflicts within elites are
unavoidable. Vlasov believes that the goal of political elites is the
minimization of such conflicts. He pointed out the benefits of
experience exchange to prevent mistakes and crisis.
