Russian President Putin to visit Azerbaijan for talks with Aliyev

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Azerbaijan on Sunday, the Kremlin has confirmed, despite Ukraine's ongoing incursion into the southern Russian region of Kursk.

The two-day visit is expected to include talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the development of the countries' strategic partnership.

The Kremlin said the two leaders are to sign several agreements on expanding cooperation between the neighbouring countries.

Aliyev, like Putin, is an authoritarian leader who has been criticized for serious human rights violations. He last visited Moscow in April.

Putin is expected to comment on peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, following years of conflict over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku seized in 2023.

Russia has traditionally been seen as close to Armenia but it refused to intervene on Yerevan's side.

Azerbaijan, an oil-rich republic on the Caspian Sea, is an important supplier of energy for the European Union.

However, it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), meaning Putin is able to travel to the country without fearing arrest under the international warrant issued for him by the court for war crimes in Ukraine.