On 4 September, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council conducted a visit to Azerbaijan where he held talks with the President of the country Ilham Aliyev and the Secretary of the Azerbaijani Security Council Ramil Usubov.

At the meeting with Aliyev, the two sides noted that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia were successfully developing in political, economic, security and all other areas. The role of warm relations between the two countries' presidents in developing the bilateral ties was emphasized at the meeting. Secretary of the Azerbaijani Security Council Ramil Usubov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliyev and Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov have all participated at the meeting.

Patrushev noted the good pace of economic and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries, stressed the importance of implementing joint infrastructure projects on the Russian-Azerbaijani border and the further development of military-technical cooperation at the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ramil Usubov. During expert consultations with representatives from the two countries, special attention was paid to improving legislation in the field of combating terrorism and extremism, as well as cooperation in the field of information security.

The Azerbaijani news website Azerdaily published an analytical article, speculating on three further aspects of Patrushev’s visit to Baku. Firstly, there was a meeting between Patrushev and Usubov, who was appointed to the position of Secretary of the Security Council of Azerbaijan in June this year (Caucasus Watch reported), and the fact that the two secretary’s “most likely” know each other personally due to their long-year services in their countries’ security apparatus. The second speculation on what was discussed at the meeting was Patrushev’s clarification to the Azerbaijani officials regarding President of Russia Vladimir Putin’s postponement of the meeting with Aliyev and the Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, originally scheduled for the 14 August 2019. The third speculated unofficial topic was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, especially after the statement of the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that Karabakh is a part of Armenia (Caucasus Watch reported), and Patrushev’s assurance to the Azerbaijani officials that it just was an internal political statement by Pashinyan. The last time Patrushev conducted an official visit to Baku was in 2017.

A few weeks earlier, on 12 August, Patrushev also conducted an official visit to Armenia where he met with Prime Minister Pashinyan and his Armenian counterpart Armen Grigoryan. The cooperation between the Russian and Armenian security institutions, cooperation in regional and international organizations, collaboration in the field of international information security, as well as the Armenian humanitarian aid to Syria were amongst the discussed topics (Caucasus Watch reported).