Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are entering a new stage based on the principles of mutual respect, equality, and strategic partnership. The Dushanbe meeting marked the beginning of a new stage of trust in the relations between the two countries.

Axar.az reports that this was stated by Russian political scientist Vitaly Arkov in his statement to Azertac.

He said that the tension between the two countries was temporary and is now behind him:

"During the meeting held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, the heads of state of Russia and Azerbaijan clearly demonstrated this. The parties noted that, according to the preliminary results of 2025, foreign trade turnover between the two countries will increase by 16 percent."

According to the political scientist, although the disagreements that arose continued for some time, certain purposeful forces were unable to achieve their goals:

“These forces intended to deepen the temporary cracks in relations and turn them into an abyss. However, the wisdom of the leaders of Russia and Azerbaijan did not allow these insidious plans to be implemented. Although mutual remarks and emotional reactions created some tension at the initial stage, both sides later demonstrated political will to normalize relations. This process was not easy, because neither side wanted to seem to have compromised its principled position. However, the results of the negotiations held in Dushanbe showed that Russia and Azerbaijan were able to listen and understand each other, and mutual understanding was reached on several sensitive issues.”

The Russian political scientist said that the unambiguous and positive signals addressed to the public of the two countries after the meeting of the heads of state serve to stabilize relations:

“As President Ilham Aliyev noted, these messages were positively received by the societies of both countries. At the same time, the signals coming from the leaders were correctly assessed by the employees of the responsible state bodies. We are already observing a clear example of this in the information about the change of the preventive measure in relation to the main figures in several resonant criminal cases.”