Russia is closely following the development of its relations with Azerbaijan, the MP said. “We hope Turkey won’t involve Azerbaijan in its conflict with Russia. We hope the centuries-old friendly relations between Moscow and Baku will further strengthen,” Levichev noted. “Azerbaijan has its own destiny, history, statehood and sovereignty”.

The centuries-old friendly and neighborly relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are an example for the neighboring countries, he added. “Relations between the two countries are developing in all areas.”

Levichev went on to add that the issue of Azerbaijan’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union can be brought up in the near future.

With regard to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement “Azerbaijan stands ready to make efforts to ease and eliminate the tension between Russia and Turkey”, the MP said Russia welcomes the Azerbaijani president’s proposal to mediate in the normalization of relations with Turkey.

“However, we have always said that the missile was fired from the Turkish side. As long as Turkey does not take any action or do not make a statement, the normalization of relations will be difficult to expect. We haven’t seen such an intention of Ankara.” he stressed.

The State Duma vice-speaker also touched upon the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Russia’s position in this process.

Levichev noted that the Karabakh conflict’s settlement is one of the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy. “Russia, as a co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group, is actively involved in a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Russia takes part in the process of the conflict settlement either within the Minsk Group format or bilateral format with Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he said.

The Russian MP considered false the idea that the Karabakh settlement most of all depends on Moscow. “It is a very complicated problem. Russia intends to solve the conflict even with ‘microscopic steps’. Therefore, any hasty statement on the Karabakh conflict will undermine the settlement process,” he noted.

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