President Vladimir Putin attended the summit meeting of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States which was formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union to maintain a certain element of cooperation in economic, cultural, and security matters that characterized the Soviet Union. The meeting on Oct. 9 this year helped to consolidate and possibly expand that cooperation as world relations have entered into a very turbulent period. It is also a safeguard against ongoing attempts by countries of the West to undermine Russia’s influence in its own neighborhood. The meeting took place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and Russian President Vladimir Putin began his visit with bilateral talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon.
The summit was also the opportunity to mend relations with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who was also being courted by Western countries in order to distance him from Russia. Aliyev had attacked Russia when an Azeri flight went down, in an attempt to land at a Russian airfield. It had been warned off from doing that as there was some defense activity going on because of Ukrainian drone attacks. The plane went down under mysterious circumstances and everyone was killed, with Aliyev claiming that it had been downed by a Russian missile. After thorough investigations had been conducted by Russian authorities, they indicated that debris from an action against incoming drones may have caused the plane to lose control and crash. The admission by Russian authorities seem to have calmed the situation considerably.
