BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Trade deals between Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan should ease Kremlin concerns about Baku's energy agreements with Europe, an Azeri scholar said.
Elhur Soltanov, a foreign policy export at Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, told Turkish newspaper Hurriyet trilateral relations between Baku, Ankara and Moscow are a diplomatic success.
"This interdependence, with all the interrelated energy and trade deals, eases Russia's concerns over Azerbaijan's energy deals," he said Monday.
A European economy fearful that conflict in Ukraine could jeopardize the gas supplies Russia sends through the former Soviet republic has looked to Azerbaijan as a source of energy security.
Last week, the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic announced it signed contracts in Turkey for the construction of the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline.
TANAP will transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz complex off the coast of Azerbaijan through Turkey to the Greek border. British energy company BP leads the group that last year picked the Trans-Adriatic pipeline to carry Shah Deniz gas from there to the European Union.
Though Azeri gas could cut into Russia's dominance, Soltanov said Russia has been able to keep a grip on Ukraine despite Western economic pressure.
"The signal [from the West] was very bad in the sense that it told everybody who is the real boss in the region, who is the real hegemon," he said.
