Experts on the transfer of the Navy base in the city of Kaspiisk

The reserve lieutenant colonel, the former head of the press service of the Defense Ministry, Uzeir Jafarov, believes that Azerbaijan should be prepared.

"After some 5-10 years in the Caspian, there will be a very big clash of interests of the Caspian countries. It is not by chance that along with Russia, Kazakhstan and neutral Turkmenistan are rapidly strengthening their navies. Russia is implementing far-reaching plans for the Caspian. It seeks to be the strongest in the Caspian and consolidate its status for this. The Kremlin will invest large amounts of money in the development of the Caspian Navy. Moscow knows that sooner or later there will be a strong struggle between the Caspian countries for leadership in the Caspian. Here, economic and political questions are intertwined with the problem of security. The Russian leadership wants to buy time and they know what they're on. As for the threat to Azerbaijan, wherever there is the Russian Armed Forces, there has always been and will be a tense situation. Ahead of us are not only worries about strengthening the land borders, but we will have to seriously think about the sea power of the country," Uzeyir Jafarov told Turan.

A military expert, retired colonel, former army corps commander Shair Ramaldanov answered the question from Turan agency.

- What caused the transfer of the Russian Navy base from Astrakhan to Kaspiisk, the construction of a large naval base in this city? Does this threaten the security of Azerbaijan?

- Kaspiisk is geographically more convenient for building the Navy base as there is a lot of space in this city, and most importantly, unlike Astrakhan in Kaspiisk, sea water does not freeze in winter and sufficient depth at the shore. And in Astrakhan, shallow water. Therefore, it was decided to place the Navy base of the Russian Federation to the south, so that sea vessels could be unhindered. Russia has new ships, increased the composition of the marines and therefore Dagestan Kaspiisk was chosen as suitable for deployment of the base.

I see no threat to Azerbaijan, since Russia is our strategic partner, we have excellent relations with Russia. Russia has its own interests in the Caspian. Our relations are generally positive. We are the main buyers in the Caucasus of Russian arms, we have joint energy projects, so I would not regard the transfer of the base from Astrakhan to Kaspiisk as a threat to Azerbaijan. Our relations with Russia will continue to develop successfully.

- These days, Armenia and Azerbaijan celebrate the second anniversary of the April battles in Karabakh, 2016. For two years in Yerevan they began to create their reconnaissance and combat equipment shown at the weapons exhibition in Yerevan. In Armenia, conclusions were drawn from the defeat in April, a new defense minister was appointed. And what about Azerbaijan? Perhaps, over the past two years, the military forces of the opposing sides have leveled off?

- Armenians continue the tradition of "Armenian radio", giving out wishful thinking.

Let's analyze: for the serial production of any combat-capable any armament, a country must have a developed economic infrastructure. What kind of economy is there in Armenia? For the treatment of wounded fighters, this country collects money from the population, the defense minister allegedly invested their money, they collect money in social networks. Armenia with an outstretched hand walks the world to find money to pay for Russia's military loan, frightening the Diaspora by talking about the fact that Azerbaijan is arming ....

The latest statistics for two years indicate that Armenia purchased weapons for 124 million dollars, at the same time, Azerbaijan purchased weapons for 551 million dollars. And if Azerbaijan acquires the newest weapons of the 21st century in Israel, then the Armenians buy weapons from Russia. Sargsyan, after the defeat in April, admitted that his army was armed with the technique of the 70s.

Even Russia does not have weapon that Azerbaijan has. Maybe the Armenians want to create something and test it, but they cannot purchase weapon from Israel. Last year, the press published information about the Armenian weapon, on which they tried to throw ordinary mines on our soldiers. This is their technical level. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces neutralize and forcibly downed Armenians; and the Armenians are afraid to lift these vehicles into the air.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defense Industry take part in almost all weapons exhibitions in the world. We sell our weapons to more than 10 states, we produce about 120 weapons for the army, including optics, cars, armored vehicles, small arms, etc. What does Armenia produces, exhibits and sells? Nothing. Weapons in Azerbaijan and Armenia cannot be compared.

At the exercises, Azerbaijan repeatedly demonstrated the level of our equipment. The Armenian army is still armed with equipment of 20 years ago. No one knows who "Iskander", which they brag, belongs to - Armenians or Russians.

Naturally, the Armenian side should oppose something, tell Azerbaijan, but the facts are facts: the Armenian radio continues to lie, - said Ramaldanov.--0--