Sergei Markov: "September - honeymoon in Azerbaijani-Russian relations"

In Baku on Wednesday the director of the Institute of Political Studies, the Deputy Chairman of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on the development of public diplomacy and the support of compatriots abroad Sergei Markov held a press conference.

According to the analyst, the last month was a "honeymoon" in the Azerbaijani-Russian relations, and this opportunity should be used primarily by suppliers of agricultural products. "We need to seriously approach the issue of the creation of infrastructure for access of Azeri agricultural products to the Russian market. In Russia there should be created Azerbaijani logistics centers so that Russian traders in agricultural products bought them from these centers and not in the territory of Azerbaijan," he stressed.

He believes that, given the long-standing sanctions against EU products, other countries are also required to provide the rhythm of long-term supply of local products to the Russian market. "We expect that Western sanctions against Russia will not be eternal, but they will last quite a lot of time. In order to convince its European partners in the counterproductive nature of their decision to impose sanctions for a year and a half, the liberated sector will be given to manufacturers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, India, China and other countries," he stressed. He noted that if local producers now occupy vacant seats on the Russian market, the niche will be left for Azerbaijan.

"If there are established logistics centers, it will be impractical to return to the use of European agricultural products. This will lead to irreversible consequences for agricultural commodity suppliers from the European Union, and will be positive for Azerbaijani suppliers. It is unlikely that European manufacturers will be able to recover at least 10% possibility of supply, as happened in the case of products from Georgia and Moldova," he said. --17D-