The Wall Street Journal: Moscow may lose its influence in the South Caucasus
The American business newspaper The Wall Street Journal in its analytical article made conclusions about the weakening of Russian influence in the South Caucasus after the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to the mass media, this is evidenced by the statements of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev with demands and criticism of Moscow in the context of the plane crash that occurred on December 25.
"Since relations with Armenia are damaged, and the future of relations with Azerbaijan is in question, Moscow is under threat of losing its influence in the South Caucasus. In neighboring Georgia, people are protesting on the streets of Tbilisi due to, in their opinion, the government's growing closeness to the Russian Federation," the publication summarizes.
Earlier, Aliyev stated that the Azerbaijani aircraft "received external damage on the territory of Russia, near the city of Grozny", and therefore demanded from Moscow "an admission of guilt, punishment of the guilty and payment of compensation". He also reminded that initially Russian official structures put forward the version about the explosion of a gas cylinder, which showed their intentions to cover up the issue, and this, in the opinion of the Azerbaijani president, "does no honor to anyone."
Prior to that, during a telephone conversation with Aliyev, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, apologized, however, without admitting guilt in the shelling of the airliner, but only because "a tragic incident occurred in the airspace of Russia." In the speech, the head of state mentioned the work of Russian air defense equipment, but did not admit that it was precisely this that caused the plane to crash.
On December 25, the Embraer plane of the Azerbaijan Airlines airline, which was flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. There were 67 people on board, 42 of them citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 citizens of Russia, 6 citizens of Kazakhstan, and 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan. It is reported that 29 passengers survived.
