Monument to Heydar Aliyev in Moscow
On Tuesday, news emerged that Moscow had laid the foundation for a monument to Azerbaijan’s first president, Heydar Aliyev, and initiated compensation payments to passengers of the Embraer 190 airliner that crashed near Aktau. Political analyst Sergey Markov stated that this move was Moscow’s way of settling the conflict with Azerbaijan over the catastrophe, which was caused by a Russian air defense strike on the aircraft over Grozny. Whether Baku will consider its demands fully met remains unclear.
The monument to the father of Azerbaijan’s current president, Ilham Aliyev, was inaugurated on Tuesday in a square near the Azerbaijani embassy. Russia’s Channel One reported that “the idea for the monument emerged last year.” However, “Agency” was unable to find any reports from last year regarding plans for the monument’s construction.
The monument is being installed “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM).” Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin stated in a news segment that the request to erect the monument came from the “BAM Builders’ Association.” Other attendees at the monument’s inauguration included Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev and Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov. Channel One’s report mentioned that “Aliyev’s efforts (as Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers at the time) resolved many issues that had previously gone unnoticed by high-ranking officials in Moscow.” However, Aliyev’s official biography on the Azerbaijani president’s website does not mention BAM.
Compensation Payments to Crash Victims
Regarding compensation, the insurance company “AlfaStrakhovanie” has begun payouts to passengers affected by the crash of the AZAL airliner, Interfax reported on Tuesday, citing Ilya Kabachnik, Deputy CEO for Aviation and Space Insurance. The report also stated that “AlfaStrakhovanie” had made full insurance payments for aviation hull coverage in February. Kabachnik clarified that the company has sufficient information to organize compensation payments even before the official investigation into the disaster is concluded. “Since war and terrorism risks were also insured, the airline will receive compensation in any case,” he said.
Political and Diplomatic Implications
Last week, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced plans to honor the surviving crew members—flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov and stewardess Aydan Rahimli—with the “For Merit to the Chechen Republic” awards and to install a memorial plaque in Grozny in memory of the crash victims. The unveiling of the Aliyev monument, Kadyrov’s decision, the insurance payouts, Azerbaijan’s refusal to vote for an “anti-Russian UN resolution” (last week, Baku abstained from voting on resolutions regarding the Ukraine conflict at the UN General Assembly), and the absence of negative coverage of the incident in Azerbaijani and Russian pro-government media all indicate, according to Markov, that the “crisis” in Moscow-Baku relations has been “overcome.”
Officially, Baku has not yet commented on the recent developments, “Agency” notes. However, Azerbaijani media have actively covered the monument’s inauguration and the compensation payments by “AlfaStrakhovanie.” Previously, Azerbaijan’s president had demanded that Russia acknowledge that the airliner was shot down by Russian air defense forces, apologize to Azerbaijan, punish those responsible for the strike, and publicly disclose the reasons behind the catastrophe.
