2025 Azerbaijan-Russia diplomatic crisis

2025 Azerbaijan-Russia diplomatic crisis
Part of Azerbaijan-Russia relations, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and the Russo-Ukrainian War
Map of Russia (orange) and Azerbaijan (green)
Date 27 June 2025 – present Location Azerbaijan, Russia Result Ongoing
Parties involved in the dispute
Azerbaijan	Russia
Commanders and leaders
Ilham Aliyev	Vladimir Putin

The 2025 Azerbaijan-Russia diplomatic crisis is an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Azerbaijan and Russia. It began in June 2025, when Russia arrested several ethnic Azeris as part of what it claimed to be an investigation into a 2001 murder. Azerbaijan responded by shutting down a Russian state television office and arresting Russian nationals working there.

Russia has traditionally had an alliance with Armenia, which is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). It had brokered a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.^[1] Relations, however, deteriorated following the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, which led to the expulsion of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia, by then pre-occupied with its invasion of Ukraine, did not provide support for Armenia, which subsequently looked towards Europe for allies.^[2] In the following months, Russia began to align more closely with Azerbaijan, endorsing the Zangezur corridor – an idea proposed by Azerbaijan that would unite it with its Nakhchivan exclave – drawing the ire of Armenia and Iran.^[3][4]

In December 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board. The plane had been struck by a Russian air-defense system due to increased anti-air vigilance amid Ukrainian drone strikes in southern Russia.^[5] Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev demanded a formal apology and compensation from Russia, and claimed that Russia had hoped the plane would crash in the Caspian Sea so evidence would be lost.^[6] The incident led to a severe deterioration in relations between the two countries.^[7]

Aliyev did not attend the 2025 Moscow Victory Day Parade, instead visiting sites commemorating the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. His snub demonstrated the degree to which relations between the two countries had disintegrated.^[7]

In 2001, a man was stabbed to death near a restaurant in Yekaterinburg. Local media at the time reported that the man had whispered the names of his killers to the police before dying. Both the alleged perpetrators and the victim were ethnic Azeris.^[8]

On 26 June 2025, Russia opened a criminal case against Aras Agalarov, a Russian-Azeri oligarch and acquaintance of Aliyev.^[9]

On 27 June 2025, Russian police arrested multiple ethnic Azeris as part of a criminal investigation into the 2001 murder, which it alleged involved organized crime.^[7] Two of the men arrested died in custody, and their bodies were returned to Azerbaijan, whereupon it was determined that they had died due to "post-traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries", which Azerbaijan blamed on Russian police brutality.^[10]

In retaliation, Azerbaijani police stormed a Russian state television office in Baku and arrested seven of its employees. Several other Russians, who were accused of drug trafficking, were arrested. The detainees, who are not known to have any prior criminal records, were beaten and bruised under custody, sparking outrage in Russia and calls for a tough response, although Russia has hitherto shown restraint.^[10] Many of the Russians arrested are refugees who fled to Azerbaijan to avoid serving in Ukraine following the announcement of partial mobilization in 2022.^[11]

On 20 July, Azerbaijan announced it would file an international lawsuit against Russia over its involvement in the Aktau plane crash.^[12]

Russia has attempted to play down the crisis, with Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, saying that "friendly relations are very important" to Russia and Azerbaijan.^[13] Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, accused Azerbaijan of acting emotionally, and that third parties like Ukraine "would do everything to add fuel to the fire".^[7] The images of detainees being badly beaten by Azerbaijani police has led to intense controversy in Russia, with Azerbaijan being accused of treating Russians as hostages, and some have encouraged the government to retaliate.^[10]

Ukraine has accused Russia of beefing up military bases in Armenia in an effort to "destabilize" the Caucasus region. This has been denied by Armenia.^[2]