On December 15 Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin arrives in Baku to participate in the meeting of the Russian-Azerbaijani intergovernmental commission. In addition, he will meet with President Ilham Aliyev.
The sides will discuss military-technical cooperation (MTC) between the two countries, as well as the recent supply of tactical systems Iskander-M to Armenia. This was reported by the Moscow newspaper Kommersant today.
According to the newspaper, Rogozin will arrive the day before the commission meeting scheduled for 16 December, and the whole Friday he will hold talks.
According to the representative of the Russian defense industry, in addition to issues of general cooperation in the framework of the visit a special place will be occupied by two events: a meeting with Aliyev and negotiations on arms exports.
One of the main tasks of the Russian delegation will be clarification of Moscow's position on the supply of operational-tactical missile complexes Iskander to Armenia. “The Azerbaijani partners negatively reacted to this development in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said a source in the defense industry.
According to media reports, a division of the complex Iskander was handed over to the Armenian army in the autumn on the basis of agreements on arms transfers within the CSTO. Officially, the fact of these supplies has never been confirmed. But in September 2016 during a rehearsal of the military parade in honor of the 25th anniversary of Armenia's independence in Yerevan, propelled launchers of this system were spotted for the first time.
Note that Rogozin will arrive in Baku immediately after the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel has become an alternative supplier of arms to Azerbaijan. Most likely, Moscow will try to make Baku an offer that is hard to refuse, that is to sell Azerbaijan a system protecting from Iskander.
Having chosen the path of selling arms to both sides, Moscow deftly manipulates both Baku and Yerevan. Arming Armenia, Moscow forces Baku to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the containment system. In this case, we can talk about deliveries of the S-400 system, which is able to neutralize the missiles Iskander, to Azerbaijan.
Such tactics of Russia are a legal way to extort huge amounts of money from Azerbaijan, making it a hostage. The question is, how long it will last, and if Baku agrees to play these games and feed the Moscow officials. -02D-
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