Thread by @DrAlakbarov

Thread. Vafa Guluzade, a former national security adviser for Azerbaijan who worked with three of that country’s first presidents.

He was considered a tough and stubborn negotiator, and he held strong opinions on a number of issues, especially on the Kremlin. #Ukraine

Guluzade was widely respected for his principled positions and dignified demeanor.

In 2014, he gave an interview to Radio Liberty on Russia and Ukraine so I've decided to post some interesting bits from it since it touches a lot of stuff on Ukraine and Russia.

Vafa Guluzade:

"Azerbaijanis in general and, I am sure, the authorities also have sympathy for Ukraine and want it to be an independent state, not a vassal territory of Russia."

"As part of the CIS, at all the summits in which I took part, Ukraine has always rescued other independent republics from preventing Russia from creating supranational structures."

"If Ukraine falls now, then Azerbaijan, Georgia will fall next. I'm also not talking about Armenia - it is became like a province of Russia; Russian military bases are located on its territory, etc."

"The same thing will happen with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - everywhere there is a Russian-speaking population."

"At any moment, the President of Russia can announce that the Russian-speaking population of Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan needs help, they are offended there, and he is going to send troops there."

"It feels like that Russia wants to restore the USSR and create the situation like it was in 1920."

"In 1920, after the end of the Civil War, Soviet Russia sent troops into the Transcaucasian republics, and also started a war in Central Asia, which lasted quite a long time, as it conquered all these territories, and once again restored the empire of Russian czars."

"It can be seen that now Vladimir Putin is striving to restore the empire of the Soviet Union."

"There are rumors that he [Vladimir Putin] is a land collector, that the collapse of the Russian Federation is a catastrophe for him, i.e. he already exposes himself as some kind of extraordinary figure - the arbiter of destinies."

"In fact, he does what Hitler did before World War II. He was a collector of lands, a unifier of all Germans, and sent troops wherever he wanted, while Europe endured all of this."

"Only one thing can affect these [Russian-Ukrainian] relations: if Putin is put in his place, forced to withdraw his troops from Crimea and leave Ukraine alone."

"As a last resort, by economic, political, diplomatic sanctions, as well as by deploying military force, to ensure that this regime falls."

"The role of Moscow is extremely negative throughout the post-Soviet space."

"Therefore, the fate of all former Soviet republics depends on how things go in the issue of suppressing Ukraine and how the West can support Ukraine."

The full interview is in Russian and can be found here:

ekhokavkaza.com/a/25290993.html

This interview is currently widely shared in Azerbaijani social media since what Mr. Guluzade said was in 2014 and it is very relevant today.