Azerbaijan Shuts Down Foreign Aid Agencies
Azerbaijan is proving it is unbiased in its disdain of outside interference, announcing on the same day the official closures of the offices of USAID and Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia’s main soft power agency.
The shut-down of USAID’s operations in Azerbaijan, confirmed by a top government official on February 6, does not come as a surprise. Azerbaijani officials have long complained the organization’s activities and funding strategy sought to undermine Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarian-minded administration. In fact, USAID had not been operating on Azerbaijani territory since June 1, 2024. The formal announcement occurred amid a lengthy bout of gloating by state-connected media outlets in Baku over the Trump administration’s clampdown on the agency.
Despite the tension in US-Azerbaijani relations, bilateral trade turnover amounted to $1.75 billion over the past year, an almost two-fold increase over 2023’s total. Azerbaijani exports to the United States totaled $135 million, and imports reached $1.61 billion.
A more an unexpected development was the kneecapping of Russia’s “aid” agency, given that Azerbaijan and Russia, at least until very recently, could be considered strategic allies. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry took action after it determined that the Russian House, the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Azerbaijan, was “not registered as a legal entity and the organization seriously violates the legislation of Azerbaijan,” according to a report by Caliber.az, a news website closely connected to officialdom.
Though seemingly coming out of the blue, Baku’s move against Rossotrudnichestvo can be seen as a signal of Baku’s displeasure with Russia’s ongoing reluctance to take responsibility for the crash of an Azeri jetliner in December. A preliminary report issued February 5 by investigators generally supported Azerbaijan’s assertion that the plan was accidentally shot down by Russian anti-aircraft fire.
The reason given by Azerbaijan for shuttering Russian House, improper documentation, would seem to allow room for a quick restoration in the event the two countries settle their differences over the jet crash.
In another diplomatic dart sent Moscow’s way, Aliyev issued a decree on February 5 approving $1 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Under the decree, Azerbaijan is providing mainly electrical equipment for heating.
