Retired politician's misguided critique of Azerbaijan Klintsevich and the lessons of hypocrisy

A native of the village of Kreyvantsy in the Ashmyany District of the Molodechno Region, Belarus, former member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation — representing the Smolensk Region administration — Frants Klintsevich made a rather sharp statement: "This is a strategic mistake and a misjudgement of the current realities with far-reaching consequences."

We wouldn’t have paid any attention to his musings had Klintsevich confined himself to discussing the affairs of his own country. But he decided to stick his nose into the matters of another state and allowed himself to make rude remarks about the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

Delighting the staff and audience of the Russian-Armenian website RusArminfo, Klintsevich concluded that “the President of Azerbaijan is making far too many key mistakes.”

Moreover, this essentially “retired drummer of a billy goat” had the audacity to use the word “hypocrisy” in assessing President Ilham Aliyev’s decision not to visit Moscow to attend the military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism.

What we are clearly witnessing is nothing more than vulgar gutter-level rudeness from a former senator, along with a glaring lack of understanding of modern international relations and the interests of sovereign states — first and foremost, those of Azerbaijan.

Regardless of what anyone says, the Victory Parade in Moscow is an important domestic political event for Russia, symbolic for its citizens, but by no means a mandatory item on the foreign policy agenda of other nations.

Incidentally, Azerbaijan held its own Victory Parade — on 10 December 2020 in Baku’s Azadlig Square — following the conclusion of the 44-day war.

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, personally oversaw the parade alongside the invited guest, President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

At the same time, servicemen of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces led the column of foreign contingents in the Victory Parade in Moscow, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of fascism. This was both a demonstration of Azerbaijan’s respect for the historic victory and a symbolic act of generational continuity. Marching across Red Square, proudly bearing the sacred Azerbaijani tricolour, were those who had taken part in the liberation of our lands from Armenian occupation.

In essence, Azerbaijan achieved victory over Armenian fascism in much the same way as the peoples of the USSR crushed Nazi Germany 80 years ago.

And to add to all this, it is worth noting that on May 9, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva visited the grave of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of the Tank Forces Hazi Aslanov. They laid flowers at his monument and honoured the memory of the sons and daughters of Azerbaijan who perished in the fight against fascism. Against this backdrop, Klintsevich’s conclusions are not only entirely inappropriate but also downright foolish.

The real hypocrisy, regrettably, comes from the Russian side — which, while declaring a strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, refuses to acknowledge its obvious responsibility for the shooting down of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer 190 aircraft by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system. The plane was operating flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny.

As a result of the catastrophe, 38 of the 67 people on board were killed, including both pilots and one flight attendant. To this day, Russia has not even expressed a willingness to identify and punish those responsible for this tragedy.

Instead, Russia launched a cyberattack on Azerbaijani media outlets, including Caliber.Az. It has already been publicly confirmed that this cyberattack originated from Russian territory. Behind it was the cyber-espionage group APT29 — also known as Cozy Bear, Midnight Blizzard, or The Dukes — which is closely linked to Russian state structures.

And what do you think happened next? Even after this information was made public by Ramin Namazov, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament’s Commission on Countering External Interference and Hybrid Threats, the Russian side neither acknowledged its guilt nor offered any apology.

The Russian side adopted the same approach in the case of the entry ban for Azerbaijani parliamentarian Azer Badamov. He was informed that he had been declared persona non grata in Russia only after arriving in Moscow with fellow parliamentarians, intending to travel to Astrakhan for events marking the 102nd anniversary of Heydar Aliyev’s birth. Once again, Russia offered no official statement regarding this incident.

For Frants Klintsevich’s information, this is precisely what hypocrisy looks like.

As for the “strategic mistakes,” it’s time to recall the proverb, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” "Strategist" Klintsevich is on the sanction lists of various countries and has been involved in numerous high-profile scandals, including those related to lobbying. Notably, he is linked to the infamous Voronenkov-Novikov case. Klintsevich has long positioned himself as a vocal critic of Azerbaijan. In 2016, following Azerbaijan's victory in the four-day April battles, he declared that “the Russian side is deeply dissatisfied with how Azerbaijan is using this equipment, and Moscow has the right to say so, demand it, and apply certain pressure.” He even stated during a live broadcast on the "Govorit Moskva" radio station, “Of course, Russia could stop arms sales to Azerbaijan if the escalation and armed conflict do not cease.”

In August 2022, Klintsevich claimed that Azerbaijan's actions in the Karabakh economic region of the country "constituted a provocation aimed at destabilising the situation." He further stated that "ignoring the presence of Russian peacekeepers could lead to Russia intervening not as peacekeepers."

However, today, there are no foreign military forces left on Azerbaijani territory. Therefore, Klintsevich and other former and current Russian politicians of various backgrounds, who make rude, false, and foolish statements about Azerbaijan and its leadership, would do well to take note of a message they should learn once and for all.