Azeri intelligence services should work in Russia "to clarify important issues" – Azeri political analyst
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
February 4, 2008 Monday 11:46 AM MSK
An Azeri political analyst believes Russian intelligence services
are actively working in Azerbaijan and urges Baku to act similarly
in Russia.
"Although Azerbaijan has gotten out of Moscow’s control, Russian
intelligence services are permanently working here. They are
primarily interested to know about the development of Azeri-American
relations and about prospects of Azerbaijan’s accession to NATO and the
deployment of NATO bases in this country’s territory," Vafa Guluzade,
a prominent political analyst and former state foreign policy advisor,
told Interfax-AVN.
"Intelligence warfare is continuing, and we should derive lessons
from the latest cases," he said.
Azeri media had earlier reported that Azerbaijan’s former envoy to
the UN Eldar Guliyev had collaborated with Russian special services.
Media also reported about a pending trial of employees of the Baku
airport’s security service and National Security Ministry officers
charged with passing information collected using special equipment
unlawfully installed at the airport’s VIP hall to Russian special
services.
"There is nothing surprising in that Russian intelligence services
are working in Azerbaijan," Guluzade said.
He called for checking airports, railway stations, post offices,
and other strategic facilities to identify possible agents of foreign
special services.
Guluzade also suggested that Azeri special services should work in
Russia "to clarify certain issues important to Azerbaijan."
"We need to know nuances of Russia’s attitude toward the problem
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia’s contacts with Armenia regarding this
problem, and so on," he said.
Guliyev, who is currently the executive director of the All-Russian
Azerbaijan Congress, denied charges that he spied for Russia while
serving as Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UN in a Friday interview
with Interfax.
In commenting on media reports saying that former Russian master
spy in New York Sergei Tretyakov, who defected to the U.S. in 2000,
named Guliyev among people spying for Russian intelligence services,
Guliyev branded these statements as "unproven fabrications."
The CIS countries agreed back in 1992 not to pursue intelligence
activities in each other’s territories. Official representatives
of intelligence services of CIS countries working in other CIS
member-states are responsible for arranging interaction between these
countries’ special services to ensure collective security, prevent
international terrorist activities, and combat drug trafficking.