Russian expert: It is profitable for Azerbaijan to sell gas to Russia

Russian political expert, Head of the Political Forecasting Center for Post-Soviet Area Studies Alexander Karavaev does not believe delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Russia might somehow affect the latter’s position in the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

The expert says the gas supply has nothing to do with the conflict resolution.

"This is not a complete reorientation of hydrocarbon supplies from Azerbaijan through Russia. We can not say that Azerbaijan has made a stake on Russia's influence on settlement of the Karabakh conflict with reorientation of gas being cost of that stake. “In other words, Azerbaijan sells all hydrocarbons in Russia or through Russia, and Russia, in turn, will take some concrete steps in favor of Azerbaijan in terms of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

"If it were so, we could talk about real things and real facts without assumptions. But the picture is different, it is a small supply of gas. There has never been a such direct effect on sale of resources and acquisition of political influence on a particular issue in the former Soviet Union,” the expert noted.

“When we talk about "how Russia could impact the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, because Azerbaijan sells it its gas”, here we restrict a political strategy. It is much more complicated. I would not seek a double bottom here, or to ascribe more sense to this trade and economic cooperation,” Karavayev said.

He said it is profitable for Azerbaijan to sell gas to Russia.

"Experts in Russia was arguing that such an outcome is obvious - if the Gazprom’s policy is in the same vein, that is, in line with the strategy of attracting the Central Asian and Caspian resources by increasing the cost in a bid to block other pipelines, it will make sale of Azerbaijani gas to Russia profitable, especially, if there are problems with Turkey or with the Nabucco project. I would not link it with the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,” the political expert said.

T. Teymur