MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Sunday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported.
Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening.
His visit to the Caucasus country, a close partner of both Moscow and Turkiye but also a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.
Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and “international and regional problems,” the Kremlin said.
The two leaders are dining Sunday evening at the Azerbaijani president’s official residence, local official news agency Asertac said.
On Monday, Aliyev and Putin will sign joint documents and make statements to the press, said Russian agency Ria Novosti.
Putin will also lay a wreath on the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current leader, who was president from 1993 to 2003.
Earlier, the Kremlin said they would also discuss “the question of settling (the conflict) between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Azerbaijan reconquered the mountainous enclave in September 2023 from the Armenian separatists who had held it for three decades.
Armenia accused Russia of inadequate support in its conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Since then, Armenia has sought to deepen its ties with Western countries, especially the United States, much to the annoyance of Moscow, which considers both former Soviet republics to be in its sphere of influence.
Azerbaijan is a major producer of natural gas, to whom many European countries turned to make up for the sharp reduction in Russian deliveries after the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.
It is also hosting the COP29 climate conference in November.
Putin’s last visit to Azerbaijan was in September 2018.
Putin has been under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court since March 2023 for the “deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia, an accusation the Kremlin denies.
While the threat of arrest has limited Putin’s travels abroad, Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute treaty that established the ICC.
Putin arrives in Azerbaijan for state visit
https://arab.news/yecqs
Putin arrives in Azerbaijan for state visit
- Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and “international and regional problems,” the Kremlin said
Uganda partially restores internet after president wins 7th term
- “The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report
KAMPALA: Ugandan authorities have partially restored internet services late after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said. He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
The state-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticized the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6 percent of the vote, while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24 percent of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticized the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut off internet.
“The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tires and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him said he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
