The leader of the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Ali Karimli accused the country's President Ilham Aliyev of establishing "harsh authoritarianism". He spoke about the systematic persecution of the opposition and independent journalists.

Karimli also stressed that the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan has no prospects, and called on the international community to actively support democratic reforms and resolve the refugee problem.

Karimli also touched upon Baku's relations with Moscow. According to him, tensions in relations between the countries increased after the Russian armed forces shot down an Azerbaijani passenger plane at the end of last year.

"President Aliyev believed that Russia, weakened by international isolation, should show more respect to Azerbaijan as one of its few allies and proposed to reconsider bilateral relations. However, Putin did not want to take into account Russia's weakening and sought to make Azerbaijan completely dependent, continuing his dismissive attitude towards Baku. Despite this, both sides maintain ties, which is explained by their ideological closeness, hostility to democracy, the desire to preserve the “club of authoritarian leaders” and the desire to hinder the integration of the South Caucasus into Europe,” noted Kerimli.