By Kontur and AFP | 2025-02-12

BAKU -- Azerbaijan has formally closed a Russian cultural center in Baku as ties with Moscow sour over claims that Russian air defense systems hit an Azerbaijani plane in mid-air.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25 after being forced to divert from its scheduled landing in Grozny, Russia, where air defense systems were active.

The plane probably was damaged by "external objects," a Kazakh investigation reported February 4.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly accused Russian air defense of accidentally downing the plane.

He has criticized Moscow for attempting to "hush up" its role in the incident -- in which 38 of the 67 people on board died -- and demanded an official apology.

Russian House shut down

A diplomatic note "was sent to the Russian side on February 3, 2025, terminating the activities of 'Russian House,'" Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said February 6.

The cultural center "did not have registration as a legal entity and the organization has been seriously violating Azerbaijani legislation," he said.

The center taught Russian language and history and reputedly had ties to Russian intelligence.

Russian House was the headquarters in Azerbaijan for the Russian cultural exchange agency Rossotrudnichestvo, considered a propaganda arm of the Kremlin.

Established in 2008 and opened in Baku in 2014, Rossotrudnichestvo is tasked with fostering relations between Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including the "formation of an objective understanding of modern Russia abroad," according to LIGA.net.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters she expected the issue to be "resolved in a positive way" and that Russia was ready to register the center as required by Azerbaijani law.

Baku preparing to sue Moscow

On February 5, Azerbaijan's pro-government APA news agency -- which often receives sensitive government leaks -- reported that Baku was preparing to sue Moscow in an international court over the jet's downing.

The preliminary report released by Kazakhstan -- which is leading the investigation as the crash occurred on its territory -- did not identify the reason why the plane went off course.

The report referred to "external objects" and included photographs of the plane's fuselage riddled with holes.

According to its probe, the crew had reported to air traffic control in Grozny about losing a Global Positioning System signal and shortly later lost control of the plane.

The plane was likely shot at from Russia, Western analysts have said.

Russia has admitted that its air defense was working the day the plane crashed and that it was repelling a Ukrainian drone attack.

But Moscow has stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Deteriorating ties with Azerbaijan

The shutdown of Russian House in Baku marks yet another stage in the continuing degradation of ties between Azerbaijan and Russia.

The two countries were allies after the fall of the Soviet Union and remained so for many years.

However, a number of events in the past three years damaged Russia's reputation in Azerbaijan and the two countries' ties.

First, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 awakened other former Soviet republics to the dangers posed by Moscow.

Then in 2023, Azerbaijan staged a lightning offensive and fully took back the pro-Armenian breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh (NK), leaving the Russian "peacekeepers" in that region geographically isolated and irrelevant.

Baku had resented the presence of those Russian forces, who stood between Azerbaijani and pro-Armenian separatist armies in NK, and considered them a "chronic irritant," the Middle East Institute said in a study last May.

That month, the Russians ingloriously left NK.

Now an apparent Russian coverup of an attack on an Azerbaijani passenger jet has compounded Baku's disgust with Moscow.

Deteriorating ties with Armenia

In another sign of Russia's dwindling influence in the South Caucasus, even Armenia -- Azerbaijan's bitter foe -- has turned on Moscow too.

Infuriated by Russia's failure to prevent Azerbaijan from retaking NK, the Armenian government in January signed a strategic partnership agreement with the United States and finalized legislation authorizing the pursuit of European Union membership.