Russian Deputy PM Rogozin in Baku to discuss military coop with Azerbaijan

"Top representatives of the special exporter of Russian weapons, Rosoboronexport, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, and Dmitry Rogozin, left Moscow for Baku late in the evening yesterday," Kommersant reported.

Rogozin himself wrote on Facebook in the early hours of Thursday: "Weather in Baku is 9 degrees Celsius at night and 14 degrees Celsius in the daytime. Windy. Greetings to all from the capital of Azerbaijan!"

Sources interviewed by Kommersant said the trip was of a "special nature" and had not been planned beforehand. "Some difficulties emerged with export contracts, which need to be settled at a high level," he said.

The Rosoboronexport and Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation officials are expected to first hold negotiations with top-ranking Azeri military officials, after which the dialogue will continue at the level of Aliyev and Rogozin.

The Russian deputy prime minister might also meet with Azeri First Deputy Prime Minister, Yaqub Eyyubov, his counterpart and co-chair of the Russian-Azeri intergovernmental commission, who is in charge of the machine-building sector and the defense industry, the newspaper said.

Russian-Azeri military-technological cooperation is currently experiencing some difficulties related to the implementation of weapons contracts concluded several years ago, and the main problem is that Azerbaijan is lacking money, Kommersant said.

The newspaper pointed out that Azerbaijan is a major player in the weapons market, and Russia would not like to lose it.