NABUCCO and the president’s visit to Baku

Some analysts suggested that the main incentive for Russian president Medvedev’s visit to Baku was to try to frustrate the NABUCCO project. As reported previously by The Messenger, Moscow and Baku signed an agreement to increase Azeri gas supply to Russia to up to 2 billion cubic metres from next year. So indirectly Russia has already started undermining NABUCCO. Commenting about this possibility President Medvedev’s response was that future projects should be economically viable, while stressing that Russia cannot and should not challenge any project. Medvedev also underlined that economic interests are practical, that Azerbaijan and Russia are big players and have a number of common interests so should cooperate more closely. Azeri President Aliyev spoke about the great future of Russia-Azeri cooperation, emphasising the fact that there is no intermediate country between the two and that the states are already connected with pipeline systems. So to finalise, Russia is continuing its policy of economic expansion, while Azerbaijan most probably just wants to please Russia to make Moscow more prepared to resolve the Karabakh problem fairly and justly.