UNUSUAL TANDEM

Azerbaijan and Russia have been cooperating for many years not just in the format of interstate relations, but also as part of the Azerbaijan-Moscow government commission. The experience of previous years shows that this cooperation justifies itself because it helps solve a number of private problems in trade-economic and humanitarian relations between the two countries.

For example, Moscow needs agricultural produce from Azerbaijan. According to the deputy mayor of Moscow, Lyudmila Shvetsova, the sphere of trade in the Russian capital accounts for 25 per cent of retail and almost one third of wholesale trade in Russia, which is why "it is important to move this sphere forward". For this reason, the Azerbaijan-Moscow government commission is engaged in eliminating obstacles standing in the way of "moving this sphere forward" in order to increase the trade turnover not only in the country-to-capital, but also in the country-to-country format.

Moscow needs Azerbaijani fruit and vegetables

Incidentally, the trade turnover has been growing so far. For example, in 2006 it accounted for 50 per cent between Moscow and Azerbaijan and 70 per cent in 2007. In the past, the volume of the trade turnover totaled 44.1 million dollars while the general trade turnover with Russia reached 1.6 billion dollars.

Export from Azerbaijan to Moscow is dominated by fruit, vegetables, alcoholic and non-alcoholic products. "Azerbaijani fruit and vegetables supplied to Moscow are of very high quality, which is why they are in great demand in Moscow. Moreover, supplies of alcoholic products from Azerbaijan to Moscow are on the increase. In 2006, more than 295,000 tons of alcoholic products were exported to Moscow, which is three times higher than in 2005. In the first quarter of 2007, the growth totaled almost 16 per cent," Shvetsova said.

Fairs have been organized in Moscow as there is a high interest in Azerbaijani fruit and vegetables. There were 37 such fairs in Moscow in 2005, and that's not the limit. However, there are still some difficulties in trade-economic relations in relations with Azerbaijan which date from the 1990s when relations between the two countries were in decline. "We have only just reached the level of the period when our economies were well-integrated. We have to do much more than what we are doing now in the sphere of trade cooperation. It is necessary to set up enterprises and create levers to deliver fresh products to Moscow from Azerbaijani fields and gardens," Shvetsova said (Interfax-Azerbaijan).

It must be noted that the problem of creating effective levers for the swift delivery of perishable agricultural produce to Moscow from Azerbaijan has existed for many years. Attempts have long been made to solve it. So far, they have been unsuccessful, although quite a few ways out of this situation were proposed earlier. Perhaps, it will be possible to tackle this and other problems in trade relations only after the establishment in Baku and Moscow of special centres to work with the business circles of the two countries. Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Qarayev has said that Azerbaijan has already prepared a technical project on a House of Baku in Moscow. "The proposal is quite serious - for 10,000 square metres of space, and we need to identify its location for further work," Qarayev said.

Skinheads - a disgrace to society

Apart from economic relations, Azerbaijan and Moscow are linked by masses of interests in the sphere of humanitarian and social relations. For example, in 2006 alone 5,000 patients from Azerbaijan received treatment in Moscow. "All appeals from Azerbaijan in the past and in the future are quite interesting to Moscow doctors. Eight Azerbaijani doctors are studying in Moscow at the moment. They are working on their dissertations to get a master's or doctor's degree," Shvetsova said. In a word, 18 per cent of places in Moscow health facilities have been allocated to nonresidents. Almost every fifth person receiving treatment there is a non-resident. They are receiving treatment at the expense of the city budget. Among them are many of those who come to Moscow for temporary employment, who work at enterprises and organizations and who come from other countries to work under contract.

"High medical technologies are actively developing in Moscow, and we suggest that you use these technologies to teach your doctors and treat your patients. We also propose more cooperation on education not only between schools, but also on teachers' training, between institutions of higher education and so on," she said.

However, regardless of the unclouded and optimistic plans of both parties, it is undeniable that Azerbaijani immigrants in Moscow do not really feel safe and cannot easily find a job. According to information available on 15 September, only 2,838 of the 14,684 Azerbaijanis who hold a work permit in Moscow have been able to find a job. "Those who did not find a job are a big problem for the Moscow authorities as they do not feel comfortable. I urge everyone to keep to the letter of the law, and if you come to Moscow to work, you have to work, not to do anything else," Shvetsova said.

It is good to obey the law. But how about hundreds and thousands of Russian citizens who are ready to kill anyone of the "wrong" ethnicity? Yes, the Moscow authorities do not deny that there is such a problem and even say that they flatly condemn any actions by skinheads against other ethnicities. "These young people are a disgrace to any society and are a subject of strict assessment and action by the law-enforcement agencies. For this reason, the judiciary authorities should deal with such attacks in the appropriate manner," Shetsova says. What exactly is being done to prevent skinhead attacks? It turns out that the Moscow authorities prefer educational measures of struggle. The Moscow government is allocating a lot of money to carry out measures to foster a culture of peace and tolerance among the city's population. Moscow is a city of 140 nationalities and 13 major confessions. If we deviate from principles of tolerance, this means that we are making the life of the city explosive and the population of our city should understand this," Shvetsova said. We can only hope that the Moscow authorities will manage to change the skinheads' attitude and they will stop attacking Azerbaijanis. Then it will be easier to cooperate.