Former Russian and German officials entered Azerbaijan in mid-July for a possible meeting to discuss Moscow’s ongoing all-out war in Ukraine, President Ilham Aliyev confirmed during a press conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday.
Baku was not aware of this development until after the fact, according to Aliyev.
“The flights statistics provide grounds to suggest that such a secret meeting was held in Baku,” yet Azerbaijan “received no notification regarding this from either Germany or Russia,” Aliyev said.
“Our territory was simply utilised without our knowledge,” he explained.
“If this meeting serves to end the Ukrainian–Russian war, we, of course, welcome it,” Aliyev said, speaking next to Merz.
Azerbaijan’s president said he ordered an investigation by his country’s State Border Service following media reports about a possible meeting.
“I can inform you that this information was confirmed,” he explained, laying out the names of the ex-German and Russian officials involved in the Baku parley.
“On 12 July, two prominent individuals — one of whom is reported to have served as chief of staff to Chancellor Merkel — Mr Pofalla and Mr Platzeck, arrived in Baku on a Berlin–Baku flight and returned from Baku to Berlin on 14 July,” Aliyev said.
Ronald Pofalla served as head of the Federal Chancellery and Minister for Special Affairs under Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2013, later becoming CEO of Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure division.
He subsequently served as co-chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue, a semi-official German-Russian forum that Germany suspended in 2021 following Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine.
He has maintained informal contacts with Russian political figures since then and has been cited by The Times as a possible unofficial mediator between Berlin and Moscow.
Matthias Platzeck is a former Social Democrat Minister-President of Brandenburg and former head of the Forum on Russo-German Cooperation, long associated with a Germany-Russia rapprochement position within the SPD.
“At the same time, on 12 July, former prime minister of Russia Mr Zubkov and head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society of Russia Mr Fadeyev arrived in Baku from Moscow,” he added. “One departed Baku on 13 July and the other on 14 July.”
Viktor Zubkov served as prime minister of Russia from September 2007 to May 2008 under President Vladimir Putin and is currently chairman of the board of Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant.
Zubkov has had a long-standing relationship with Putin dating back to the Russian president’s time as mayor of St Petersburg, when Zubkov served as deputy chairman of the city administration’s external relations committee.
Valery Fadeyev has headed Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights since 2019. The body, which advises Putin, has also been used in various diplomatic and back-channel contexts. Both are regarded as figures within Putin’s trusted inner circle.
At the press conference in Berlin, Merz said that he had no information about the alleged meeting in Baku, yet added that “for months, we have been trying to persuade President Putin to initiate negotiations.” The Russian president refused, according to Merz.
“Ending this war rests solely with the Russian government and the Russian president. Entering into talks and, if necessary, starting peace negotiations depends solely on him,” Merz said.
“He continues to refuse to do so,” the German chancellor added.
“I am extremely grateful to President Aliyev for sharing a similar stance with us regarding that war, its causes, its course, and its possible conclusion,” Merz concluded.
Azerbaijan’s president reiterated his position that “the war must be stopped immediately.”
“Our primary goal is for this war to end and for peace to be secured in the region,” Aliyev said.