Azerbaijan currently leading fundamental geopolitical transformation of region - Alexander Lapshin

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan is currently leading a fundamental geopolitical transformation of the region. Its importance is due to the skillful exploitation by the Baku regime of its two main assets - oil and gas, the value of which has increased significantly as a result of Russia's war with Ukraine, when Europeans were looking for an alternative to supply oil and gas to the EU countries. This opinion was expressed by the well-known blogger and political commentator Alexander Lapshin in an interview with a major Romanian newspaper "Libertatea".

In an article devoted to the military ties between Israel and Azerbaijan, the genocide in Artsakh, Azerbaijan's active participation in bypassing anti-Russian economic sanctions, the history of its struggle with the Aliyev dictatorial regime and other topics, Lapshin argues that Russian oil and gas exports through Azerbaijan have increased significantly after Russia lost access to most of the European market. Thus, Russian oil exports to Azerbaijan have quadrupled in 2023. Azerbaijan has also become an indispensable partner for Russia in transporting goods to and from Iran and the Persian Gulf ports.

The contradiction of the war in Ukraine, according to Lapshin, is that while the Europeans and Americans are trying their best to isolate Russia, they, the Europeans, are supporting the influence of another autocrat, Ilham Aliyev. At the same time, according to Lapshin, military cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan remains very strong. Back in 2012, Israel and Azerbaijan signed an agreement under which the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries committed to selling Azerbaijan drones, anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems worth $1.6 billion. Moreover, in December 2016, while Lapshin was under illegal arrest in Minsk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a historic visit to Baku to show a positive example of Muslim- Jewish coexistence. At a press conference of the two political leaders, Aliyev said that over the years Baku had purchased Israeli weapons worth almost $5 billion. What unites the cooperation between the two states is the fear of Iran. On the one hand, there is a proxy war between Israel and Iran, in which Iran is a regional power supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, two non-state actors hostile to Israel.

On the other hand, relations between Iran and Azerbaijan are riddled with suspicion and mistrust, since after the collapse of the USSR and the recognition of Azerbaijan as an independent state, Baku has often voiced irredentist theses and promoted the idea of a reunited historical Azerbaijan that would unite today's Azerbaijan (the current country) with a region inside Iran, also called Azerbaijan, where the population is mainly Azerbaijanis. Fearing Baku's intentions to foment separatism, Iran offered strong support to Armenia in its war against Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. In response, Azerbaijan established strategic relations with Turkey, which historically has had poor relations with Armenia due to the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century.

In this complex geostrategic game, as the newspaper "Libertatea" comments on the interview, blogger Lapshin has become a character who plays the democratic card of respect for human rights and who is supported by various activist and human rights groups in Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora.