What's happening between #Russia and #Azerbaijan?

🇦🇿❌🇷🇺 Relations between Moscow and Baku have once again deteriorated this past week following the arrest of several Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, two of whom were killed by Russian OMON (riot police) officers. Another eight Azerbaijani citizens sustained injuries of varying severity during the harsh detentions, with four in critical condition and hospitalized.

⚠️The deceased were involved in the restaurant business and held both Azerbaijani and Russian citizenship, suggesting that, given the involvement of the FSB, this may indicate a typical Russian power-related business redistribution

➡️ As a result, all concerts, festivals, performances, and exhibitions that Russian state institutions planned to hold in Azerbaijan have been canceled.
The temporary chargé d'affaires of Russia in Azerbaijan was summoned to the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where a strong protest was lodged regarding the raids in Yekaterinburg on apartments where people of Azerbaijani origin reside. Azerbaijan's Culture Ministry announced the cancellations, and Azerbaijan's parliament also withdrew from an upcoming bilateral meeting in Moscow. Baku canceled a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, stating that the Azerbaijani government didn't consider it appropriate for him or any other Russian official to visit the country under current circumstances

🔴 Adding fuel to the fire were statements by Russian propagandists who claimed: "Baku has always been a Russian city, just like Odesa"

⏺In response, Azerbaijani TV channels accused Russia of repression, chauvinism, and imperialism:

"The Russian people have always been considered a superior race, while Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen are second-class people... What happened, Putin? Are you so concerned that Azerbaijan has become a strong state for the first time in 200 years, reclaimed its lands, and restored its sovereignty?"

➡️ It's worth noting that relations between the two countries began to sour after a passenger plane belonging to the Azerbaijani airline AZAL was shot down in Russian airspace (over Grozny) last December. The plane crashed in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board.
Baku categorically refused to “hush up” the tragedy with the downed plane, despite pressure from the Kremlin.

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🇦🇿❌🇷🇺 Situation in Baku: The entrance to the Sputnik-Azerbaijan office in Baku is blocked, police have cordoned off the area in front of the building. The agency is financed and managed by the government of the Russian Federation.

Investigative measures are being carried out in the office of the Russian agency.

⏺ Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that "Russian diplomats in Baku have been unable to contact Russian journalists for more than two hours" — TASS

UPD:
Two Russian FSB officers working undercover at Sputnik Azerbaijan detained, Azerbaijan Investigative Committee reports

#Russia #Azerbaijan

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⚠️🔞 Warning, not for the faint of heart ❗️

⚡️🇦🇿🇷🇺The backdrop to the Sputnik affair is becoming increasingly dark - the story taking on not only diplomatic dimensions, but also tragic ones.

Today, Azerbaijan buried brothers Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, whose bodies were brought from Yekaterinburg.

According to the forensic medical examination, the men were tortured to death in a Russian pretrial detention center. Their bodies, with signs of torture and severe injuries, caused shock and outrage in Azerbaijani society.

🔴 The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office accused the FSB, the Russian National Guard, and the Russian Interior Ministry of torture, multiple blows, broken ribs, and murder of the Safarov brothers. Forensic experts recorded multiple fractures in Huseyn Safarov, and internal organ injuries, a missing rib, and internal bleeding in Ziyaddin.
The funeral took place in their native village of Agjabedi in front of a large gathering of fellow countrymen

⏺The mirror arrests began in Baku: members of two Russian organized crime groups were arrested for drug trafficking, cyber fraud, and other crimes.

🔗 Vesti.az

#Russia #Azerbaijan

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#BREAKING
⚡️🇷🇺🇦🇿Mass detentions of Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg, #Russia
In the center of Yekaterinburg, near the Baku Plaza shopping center, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Urals, Shahin Shikhlinsky, and his son were detained
⏺Judging by the number of Gelendvagens, the arrest was carried out by the FSB
#Azerbaijan

🔗 Trend.az
УРАЛLIVE

⚡️🇷🇺🇦🇿В Екатеринбурге массовые задержания азербайджанской диаспоры!
В центре Екатеринбурга у ТЦ Baku Plaza задержаны глава азербайджанской диаспоры на Урале Шахин Шихлинский и его сын
⏺Судя по количеству гелендвагенов, задержание проводило ФСБ
#Россия #Азербайджан

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🇦🇿🇹🇷❌🇷🇺 #Azerbaijan accuses #Russia of imperial ambitions and more

⏺A host on Azerbaijan’s state television expressed outrage over the recent events in Yekaterinburg:

“It’s like 1937 all over again, only harsher. Does the Kremlin understand that the former Soviet republics have been independent for 30 years now?”

⏺Russia was reminded of everything: Stalinist purges, its support for Armenia in Karabakh, treating former Soviet peoples as “second-class citizens,” and... even the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine:

“Are there any winners in this war? No, and there won’t be. Russia is forcibly sending migrants to fight, and those who refuse are threatened or even killed, like the Safarov family. Migrants are blackmailed and denied compensation, sent to the hottest spots in the war against Ukraine. The Russian empire has collapsed!”

⏺But the main point — according to insider sources, the crackdown on the Azerbaijani diaspora is just “the beginning of a large-scale process that will only intensify.”

After today’s arrests of Yusif Khalilov in Voronezh and Shahin Shikhlinsky in Yekaterinburg, similar purges could soon hit other major Russian cities: In Moscow, the key community leader is Bakhtiyar Gasanov; in St. Petersburg — Vagif Mamishov (who controls a significant share of the trade business); in Novosibirsk — Rasim Babaev, influential in construction and commerce; and in Nizhny Novgorod — Rasim Kuliyev, head of the local community.

⏺Ahmed Gadzhiev, head of the Lukoil group’s production association in the Urals, has already been arrested.

⁉️How all this will end is anyone’s guess. #Türkiye is behind Baku, shouldn't forget about that, and reportedly, Erdogan is set to visit Azerbaijan on July 4.

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Middle Eastern Zugzwang
⁉️🇺🇸🇮🇷Can the US strike Iran without regional allies?

🇸🇦🇦🇪🇶🇦🇰🇼🇮🇶🇯🇴🇴🇲🇦🇿🇹🇷🇵🇰❌🇺🇸Insiders report that #KSA, #UAE, #Qatar, #Kuwait, #Iraq, #Jordan, #Oman, #Azerbaijan, #Turkey, and #Pakistan have refused #US access to their airspace/territory for aggression against #Iran.


➡️ Washington is left with two bad options:


1️⃣ Strike from the sea (Arabian Sea) or Diego Garcia via the narrow Gulf of Oman corridor (<300km).

➡️ The Trap: Predictable flight paths allow Iran to concentrate AD/A2AD in one sector.

➡️ Range Gap: USS Lincoln (JASSM-ER ~925km) vs. Iran (Ghadr-380 >1000km, Drones 1500-4000km).

➡️ Intel: Iranian drones are already shadowing the USS Lincoln group.

➡️ Logistics: Bombers from Diego Garcia (3800-5200km away) carry heavy firepower (B-2/B-52/B1B) but cannot sustain the sortie rate needed to prevent retaliation.


2️⃣ Ignore allies and violate their airspace.

⏺ Risks:
➡️ US branded as an "unreliable partner" (officially).
➡️ Escalation to regional war & Strait of Hormuz blockade (20% of global oil).
➡️ Mass protests and attacks on US bases (Iraq 2020 scenario).

ℹ️SUMMARY: A US attack now is insufficient for regime change. Iran has stabilized internally (crushing protests after the Starlink blackout). This is a diplomatic trap: "No war, no peace."

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Week in Review: The Calm Before the Storm

‼️🇺🇸 🇮🇷 #US vs #Iran: Pre-Strike Buildup Reaches Critical Mass

What we're witnessing is not "increased pressure" or a "negotiating posture." This is a textbook pre-strike force deployment

➡️ Two carrier strike groups (USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford) are now converging on the Middle East. A single carrier group signals deterrence. Two signal an operation. The combined air wing comprises approximately 240 strike aircraft, including F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, F-35C/A, F-22A, F-16, and F-15E platforms, supported by EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft, E-2D/E-3 AWACS, P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol, and KC-135/KC-46 tankers

➡️ Since mid-January, the US has conducted roughly 200 C-17 Globemaster III transport flights to the region. At approximately $25,000 per flight hour and 11 hours per round trip, transport costs alone exceed $55 million — excluding the deployment of dozens of other aircraft and naval vessels

🇯🇴 THAAD missile defense systems have been deployed to Muwaffaq Al-Salti Air Base in Jordan, with at least 68 cargo aircraft arriving within five days. THAAD is not a deterrence tool — it's a shield you raise when you know the counterpunch is coming

🇳🇴 The US is withdrawing most of its aviation assets from NATO's Cold Response 2026 exercises in #Norway, scheduled for early-to-mid March. This is a direct resource reallocation from "training" to "operational" status

🇵🇹 Portugal's Lajes Field in the Azores experienced its largest-ever influx of American aircraft: at least 11 KC-46 tankers, 12 F-16 fighters, one C-17 transport, and approximately 400 US crew members transited through on February 18-19 alone. Staging bases are running out of capacity

🔴🕘 Estimated timeline: The strike group reaches peak readiness by late February to early March 2026. The operational window opens in the first two weeks of March. The likely scenario is a 72-hour air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure (Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, Arak, Bushehr) and IRGC command centers — not a ground invasion, but a decapitation of the nuclear program

➡️ Trump's mention of 32,000 Iranian protest casualties is narrative preparation — framing the strike as "liberation" rather than aggression

⚡️🇺🇸✈️Boeing C-17 Modernization: $400M for a "Retired" Workhorse

The US Air Force awarded Boeing a $400+ million contract to fully modernize the C-17A Globemaster III cockpit — for an aircraft whose production ended in 2015. The USAF needs the C-17 flying until 2075. This is not a typo. An aircraft designed in the 1980s is being prepared for service into the 2070s. The 200 transport flights to the Middle East in one month are a better justification for this investment than any Pentagon report

🇮🇱 🇦🇪 #UAE - #Israel: Shin Bet Embedded in the Emirates

A leaked UAE Ministry of Interior document reveals a secret agreement embedding seven Shin Bet agents directly within the command centers of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and all seven emirates. Agents were issued Emirati identity cards for undercover operations. A joint Mossad-Shin Bet office was established at Expo 2020. Israeli "consultants" operate under the direct supervision of local police chiefs

This leak is either a deliberate signal from someone in Abu Dhabi seeking distance from Israel ahead of the Iran strike, or Iranian intelligence demonstrating awareness of Israeli-Gulf coordination. Either way, the message is clear: the Emirates are already inside the operation, whether they acknowledge it publicly or not

🇯🇵 🇩🇪 #Japan and #Germany have repeatedly urged their nationals working at US facilities in the Middle East to leave. MFAs across multiple countries have been issuing similar warnings for at least three weeks — routine noise until embassy evacuations begin, which marks the real countdown

⚠️As a reminder: in early February, #KSA, #UAE, #Qatar, #Kuwait, #Iraq, #Jordan, #Oman, #Azerbaijan, #Turkey, and #Pakistan officially or privately warned the United States that they would not allow their airspace, land, or waters to be used for aggression against Iran

#US vs. #IRAN #War
🔥Second phase of the war: neither oil nor water
ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE IN THE MIDDLE EAST · Part 3: #LOSSES

🗺 The first map shows the deployment of US Air Force strategic bombers for strikes on Iranian territory.

Math puzzles:
🇺🇸 According to US sources, more than 200 strikes were carried out on Iranian targets over the past 72 hours.
🇮🇱 As a reminder, Israel claims 300 targets were hit only in the last 24 hours alone.

⚡️💵The State Department approved an emergency $151.8 million deal to sell Israel 12,000 BLU-110 bombs.
According to the IDF, more than 6,500 various munitions have been dropped on Iran since the start of the military operation.

🇮🇶 Yesterday: US troops supported by AH-64 Apache attack helicopters engaged in combat with Iranian proxies in Mosul, Iraq, according to local sources (video).

⚡️🇬🇧 Today: US Air Force B-1B Lancer long-range bombers arrived at RAF Fairford in the UK en route to the Middle East.

❗️ 🇦🇪 Chinese satellite imagery shows visible damage from Iranian attacks on Al Dhafra Air Base in the #UAE, where US forces are stationed.

🛰 Planet Labs satellite imagery reveals at least 17 aircraft, most of them civilian, destroyed in yesterday's US and Israeli attacks on Mehrabad International Airport.

SUDDENLY:
‼️🇺🇸 The Pentagon has cancelled major exercises of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

Analysts believe one of the military's premier units, specializing in large-scale invasion operations, may be deployed to the Middle East.

➡️ Putin did the same thing back in the day: he committed his best troops in the first days of the war.

⚡️🇮🇱 🇦🇿 Israeli officials expressed confidence that #Azerbaijan will join the war against Iran "in the very near future."
➡️ Azerbaijan — a former Soviet republic — is under Turkey's umbrella and is increasingly distancing itself from Moscow.

🔴 KEY TAKEAWAY (map 2):

➡️ US financial losses (confirmed by the Pentagon) — at least $2.52B.

⏺ AN/FPS-132 air defense radar system worth $1.1 billion — Qatar;

⏺ AN/TPY-2 radar from the THAAD system worth $500 million — UAE;

⏺ At least three F-15E Strike Eagle fighters worth a combined $282 million — Kuwait (total losses: five F-15Es, 2 unconfirmed, plus one F-16 and possibly one F-35);

⏺ Three AN/GSC-52B satellite communication terminals worth a combined $30 million — Kuwait;

⏺ Two AN/GSC-52B satellite communication terminals worth a combined $20 million — Bahrain;

⏺ AN/TPY-2 radar from the THAAD system worth $500 million — Jordan;

⏺ Three MQ-9 Reaper drones worth a combined $90 million — in Iran.

💸🪖 NYT: The war against Iran cost the US at least $6B in the first week
About $4B of this amount was spent on munitions, primarily on missile interception systems.


➡️ 🇪🇺 #Europe under fire:
🔥🇳🇴 An explosion occurred on the grounds of the US Embassy in Oslo, #Norway (video).

🇵🇱 In Warsaw, #Poland, metro stations are being stocked with supplies to shelter the population in the event of a major war (video).
"Thanks," Trump!

⚡️⚡️UPD:
💀 Iran reported 104 sailors were killed and 32 wounded in U.S. Submarine Strike on Frigate Dena on March 4, 2026.

The vessel, carrying 136 crew members, was returning from the MILAN 2026 multinational naval exercise hosted by India.
20 crew members are missing; the wounded are in Sri Lanka.

The US confirmed the strike — The Global Eye

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#US vs. #IRAN #War
CONSEQUENCES: Between Past and Future
PART 2: Who Pays for the War

➡️ 🇺🇸🔥🌎 The US is dragging more countries into the war

🇧🇭 🇰🇼 The US military is using the territory of Bahrain and Kuwait for strikes against Iran: transport-launch containers for American ATACMS tactical missiles, launched via HIMARS MLRS, have been discovered in the Kuwaiti desert.

⚡️🇹🇷 An Iranian ballistic missile was intercepted today in Turkish airspace.
Debris fell near Gaziantep.

🇺🇸 🇹🇷The US has ordered non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave the consulate in Adana, southern Turkey, due to security threats related to the war against Iran.

🇮🇷🇨🇾🇹🇷🇦🇿 Iran has not attacked #Cyprus, #Turkey, or #Azerbaijan — Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Iran also reported 1,255 civilian deaths as a result of US and Israeli airstrikes — Al Jazeera

🇹🇷🇨🇾 Turkey has deployed six F-16 fighter jets and air defense systems to the territory of Northern Cyprus.

⚡️🇬🇧 Three US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers have arrived at the UK's RAF Fairford airbase.
⚡️⚡️🇮🇱 Trump's special envoy Witkoff and the US President's son-in-law Kushner have abruptly canceled their planned March 10 trip to Israel — reported by Israel's Channel 12.
➡️ Not hard to guess what this means.

🇹🇷 Erdogan:

"Turkey stands on the side of justice, honesty, international law, peace, and stability in the Iranian crisis.
We support the resolution of conflicts through dialogue."

CASUALTIES:

🔥☠️ The IRGC has struck five US bases in the Middle East and Israeli bases in the Tel Aviv and Haifa areas — pro-Russian sources.

🇦🇪 The #UAE has reported the death of two of its servicemen "in a helicopter crash while on duty."

🇱🇧 Hezbollah missiles struck a vital Israeli satellite communications center (Radar station in Beit Shemesh
"The latest missile attack from Lebanon on the center of the country was carried out using precision surface-to-surface missiles." — Israeli media.

🇮🇱 The IDF reported the death of one of its soldiers.

🇵🇰 War is approaching to #Pakistan.
Israeli/US drones have been spotted over Zahedan, the capital of Iranian Balochistan, the closest major city to the Pakistani border

⚡️🇸🇦 The US is urgently evacuating its tankers from a Saudi base.
The US has withdrawn its aerial refueling tankers from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia following intense strikes on the facility last night.

🇺🇸 Trump said ships waiting at the Strait of Hormuz should “show some guts” and move through the waterway despite tensions with Iran.

In an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Sunday, Trump said,
“There’s nothing to be afraid of, they have no Navy, we sunk all their ships… and all but 20% of their launchers.”

ECONOMIC STRIKE:
➡️ 💵📈 Dollar surged as the war in the Middle East drove oil prices above $110 per barrel.

📉🇦🇪 Dubai's real estate price index collapsed by 15-20%.

💸Over $900 billion was wiped off the US stock market at the opening bell.

📉 European stock exchanges also opened with significant declines:
🇫🇷 Paris -2.29%,
🇩🇪 Frankfurt -2.50%,
🇬🇧 London -1.26% (AFP).

REACTION IN THE US:
⁉️🇺🇸🪖Americans on social media have called for Trump's youngest son, 19-year-old Barron, to voluntarily enlist in the military and go to the war in Iran.

🇺🇸 Trump immediately stated that he is far from ordering a ground mission in Iran.
➡️ But at the same time, we remind you, the White House "does not rule out mobilization."

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