Russia’s intelligence chief meets Azerbaijani president on Baku visit

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and others during a two-day visit to Baku, his office said on Thursday.

A statement by the SVR said Naryshkin visited Baku on Oct. 2-3, and discussed with Aliyev issues concerning the current international situation and dialogue between Russia and Azerbaijan’s special services.

Priorities with regard to bilateral cooperation for the near future were also considered at the meeting, the statement said.

During Naryshkin’s meeting with the leadership of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Intelligence Service and State Security Service, the readout said, both sides exchanged views on countering international terrorism and religious extremism.

Special attention was paid to efforts to identifying the “hostile aspirations of Western special services aimed at undermining the internal political stability in our states.”

“During the meeting … it was emphasized that in the current situation, one of the main tasks of intelligence and counterintelligence is the timely detection and suppression of subversive actions of anti-Russian and anti-Azerbaijani orientation organized abroad,” the statement added.

It added that both sides underlined the need to increase joint efforts to counter foreign intelligence activities intending to destabilize the socio-political situation in Russia and Azerbaijan.

“Recently, through the joint efforts of the special services of Azerbaijan and Russia, it was possible to prevent a provocative threat against a Russian diplomat by the Americans,” Naryshkin was separately quoted by Russian state news agency RIA as saying to reporters in Baku.