Moscow: Azerbaijan plays key role in evacuating Russians from Iran

Azerbaijan and Armenia provided significant assistance in evacuating Russian citizens from Iran, according to Alexey Klimov, Director of the Consular Department at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in an interview with TASS.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan rendered substantial help in evacuating our compatriots from Iran. In particular, Baku allowed Russian citizens to use the ‘Astara’ border crossing, which has been closed for individual crossings since 2020, upon prior request from the Russian Embassy in Tehran,” the diplomat said.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, along with several senior officials. This was followed by the evacuation of foreign nationals from Iran to Azerbaijan via the Astara border crossing.

By March 20, more than 2,000 citizens from 75 countries, including at least 323 Russians, had been evacuated from Iran through Azerbaijani territory.

By Jeyhun Aghazada