Decline of Mekhtiev, Russia's right-hand man in Baku

After representing the ruling classes for half a century, at 87 he has been accused of wanting to overthrow the Aliyev regime. His arrest is symbolic of Azerbaijan's new position on the international stage, which is bringing to fruition the military campaign to reconquer Karabakh and redefine relations with other countries in the Caucasus and the Middle East.

Baku (AsiaNews) - The arrest of Ramiz Mekhtiev, the main ideologue of the last Soviet era, known as the ‘Cardinal Richelieu’ of Baku, on charges of attempting a coup d'état, has caused a great stir in Azerbaijan. A true leader of the Soviet Communist Party in the country, Mekhtiev had held every possible position of power in the succession of leadership teams between the end of the USSR and the beginning of independence, from the first president Gejdar Aliev to his son Ilham, the current head of Azerbaijan. After representing the ruling classes for half a century, he still had enough energy left to be accused, at the age of 87, of wanting to overthrow the Aliyev regime.

The allegations against him summarise his time at the top, linking recent events to past situations. In this phase of tension between Moscow and Baku, Mekhtiev has been made the scapegoat as the “Russians” trusted man', having been a familiar face in the Kremlin since the days of Brezhnev, not so much as a secret agent, but rather as a “household name” able to communicate with everyone with a mere facial expression, regardless of political or ideological tendencies. He not only survived the momentous changes, but, like Richelieu, managed to maintain his influence on political events for several decades.

In Azerbaijan, it is said that Mekhtiev played a decisive role in the succession of the Alievs from father to son, when Gejdar was thinking of transferring power to his daughter Sevil, not trusting Ilham, who has always shown his gratitude to the intercession of “Uncle Ramiz”. Subsequently, the current president showed signs of impatience with his protector, eventually wanting to get rid of him by taking advantage of the ongoing conflict with Moscow over a series of regional and nationalistic issues, which happily covered up the showdown at the top of the Baku power structure.

In 2019, Ilham Aliyev awarded Mekhtiev the highest honour in the name of his father Gejdar, signalling the departure of the now elderly adviser, accompanied by his appointment as a member of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, which he was forced to leave in 2022. Since February this year, strange rumours have been circulating about an ongoing plot to overthrow the current regime, hatched by a group that included former ministers and other high-ranking figures, such as former Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedjarov, who was already deceased at the time, and Ramiz Mekhtiev, known as “Putin's friend”.

According to many commentators, his arrest is symbolic of Azerbaijan's new policy and position on the international stage, which is bringing to fruition the military campaign to reconquer Karabakh, in order to project itself onto new political, military and economic horizons, completely severing ties with Russia and redefining those with other countries in the Caucasus and the Middle East, as well as the global geopolitical scenario. It was easy to dump a mountain of responsibility on Mekhtiev through the government press, which had a ton of material on the “Azerbaijani cardinal's” many years in power. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mekhtiev turned the Academy of Sciences website into a platform for his views on the world order, accusing everyone else of using the pandemic as a tool of power.

From those and subsequent statements, Mekhtiev suggested that the transfer of power after the end of the USSR should not be handed over to one person, but that a provisional council should be set up in agreement with Moscow to manage the situation without trauma. These and other judgements earned him the accusation of being Moscow's “fifth column” in last year's dispute, and according to interpretations in recent days, he was dismissed by Putin himself in order to restore the situation to a general agreement, bearing the double accusation of being a “double agent”.

Now, following the meeting between Putin and Aliyev in Dushanbe on 9 October and Mekhtiev's arrest on 19 October, relations between Moscow and Baku can start afresh, thanks to the final sacrifice of the “uncle of the Russians and Azeris”, who in any case does not risk imprisonment or a concentration camp, but from the warmth of his villa in the hills above Baku, under house arrest, continues to bless the epochal changes that leave the balance of power on the border between East and West unchanged.

• Azerbaijan
• Baku
• Russia
• Mekhtiev
• Aliev