Overview

• Following allegations that Russian police tortured to death ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, Baku detained the editors of Sputnik and eight additional Russian nationals on espionage, drug trafficking and cybercrime charges
• President Ilham Aliyev rejected a telephone call from Vladimir Putin while speaking with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, underscoring Azerbaijan’s growing diplomatic independence
• Following the diplomatic rift with Moscow, reports indicate Aliyev and Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan will meet in Dubai to discuss a formal peace agreement
• The planned Zangezur Corridor promises to route Central Asian trade through Armenia into Turkey, bypassing Russia and attracting U.S. and Turkish investment and security guarantees
• Turkey has supplanted Russia as the primary security guarantor in parts of the South Caucasus by establishing a military base in Azerbaijan as Washington offers support for regional integration projects