Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not come to Moscow for the May 9 celebrations. Baku explained the refusal by "internal events." Ukrainian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Yuri Gusev expressed gratitude to the president.
In March, the press service of the Azerbaijani leader reported that Aliyev accepted Putin's invitation to attend the ceremonial events in honor of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.
Tensions in relations between the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan arose after a high-profile air crash that occurred late last year. On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijani passenger airliner Embraer 190, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau. It is known that there were 67 people on board, of which 42 were citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, 6 of Kazakhstan and 3 of Kyrgyzstan. 29 passengers survived.
Moscow hid the reasons for the plane crash for a long time. However, the dominant version was that it came under fire from Russian air defense systems during an attack by Ukrainian drones on Chechnya. This is the opinion of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in connection with which he demanded that Russia admit guilt, punish the perpetrators and pay compensation.
In February, the Azerbaijani authorities sent the Russian side an official notification about the termination of Rossotrudnichestvo activities in the country. Baku accused the Rossotrudnichestvo-controlled Russian House project of espionage, calling it a "hotbed of separatism and a nest of espionage."
On May 3, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' arrived in Baku. Here he met with President Ilham Aliyev and Vice President, First Lady of the country, Mehriban Aliyeva. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church conveyed to Aliyev Putin's invitation to Moscow for the parade in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Victory. Mehriban Aliyeva, in turn, was awarded the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga of the 1st degree of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Political scientist Arkady Dubnov, commenting on this meeting, drew attention to the excessive politeness of the Patriarch's rhetoric. The journalist concluded that "thus, four months after the drama that occurred in the skies over Grozny on December 25 last year with the Azerbaijani passenger plane Embraer shot down by a Russian missile, which killed 39 people, Moscow found a way to make peace with Baku by sending the highest church hierarch of Russia there with an "olive branch of peace."
