Azerbaijan has refused to participate in a meeting of the Council of Interior Ministers of the countries that make up the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
According to the official CIS portal, the meeting was held in St Petersburg on 12 August. It was attended by representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The meeting discussed “topical issues” in the fight against illegal migration, cooperation in road safety, forensic medicine and “work to counter destructive elements destabilising the socio-political situation in the CIS countries”.
Tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia began with the shooting down of an AZAL passenger plane by Russian air defence in December 2024. This year, in July, representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora were arrested in Russia, and in August Russian troops struck several Azerbaijani businesses in Ukraine.
On 11 August, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to allocate $2 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine – these funds will be used to purchase and transfer electrical equipment to Ukraine. Telegram channels close to Aliyev’s entourage also reported about the possibility of cancelling the ban on arms supplies to Ukraine.