Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7 / Trend M.Aliyev /
The Russian Information and Cultural Centre in Baku held on Monday discussions of the prospects of the Azerbaijani-Russian relations, dedicated to the inauguration of Vladimir Putin.
At the opening of the round table political scientist Fikret Sadikhov said that improvement of the Azerbaijani-Russian relations is closely related to the name of Vladimir Putin. "After Putin came to power for the first time the relationship between the two countries rose to a new level," Sadikhov said. He said that at present Russia is a reliable partner of Azerbaijan.
MP Asim Mollazade during the discussions touched on the prospects of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. He said that in many cases positions of Azerbaijan and Russia will be the same, "except for military partnership between Russia and Armenia". Nevertheless, the MP believes that Russia will exert pressure on Armenia to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Mollazade also said that further cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia should be expanded not only in economic and energy, but also in the cultural sphere.
Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Studies Gulshan Pashayeva said that since 2001, with Putin's visit as president of Russia to Azerbaijan a new phase began in relations between the two countries, particularly in the humanitarian sphere. She expressed hope that Russia will use its potential for finding ways to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.
MP Elmira Akhundova said that Vladimir Putin is a politician who knows the problem of Azerbaijan, the man who wants peace to his people. She wished Russia to confirm during Putin's presidency its great power status, and wished Russia's opinion to be taken into consideration more when making decisions on peace and security. Nevertheless Akhundova, referring to Putin's latest article, noted that she is disturbed by the absence in this article of reflections about the prospects of cooperation with Azerbaijan.
MP, a political scientist Rasim Musabekov in his speech paid attention to the issue of the Gabala radar station. He said the issue should be resolved by taking into account economic and other interests of both countries. He also noted that the two countries have overlapping interests in the energy sector.