Azerbaijani defense minister: Russians got drunk and admitted selling weapons to Armenia

Making progress in Caucasian diplomacy apparently requires a healthy amount of vodka: 5. (S) [Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar] Abiyev told the Ambassador about his late-January trip to Moscow to discuss Azerbaijan’s allegations that Russia had made extensive weapons transfers to Armenia throughout 2008. In formal meetings, Abiyev said, his Russian counterpart stuck to the talking ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Making progress in Caucasian diplomacy apparently requires a healthy amount of vodka:

Making progress in Caucasian diplomacy apparently requires a healthy amount of vodka:

5. (S) [Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar] Abiyev told the Ambassador about his late-January trip to Moscow to discuss Azerbaijan’s allegations that Russia had made extensive weapons transfers to Armenia throughout 2008. In formal meetings, Abiyev said, his Russian counterpart stuck to the talking points and denied any involvement. However, "after the second bottle of vodka," that evening, he said, the Russians opened up and admitted to having transferred weapons to Armenia.In an interesting side note, Abiyev quoted [Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy] Serdyukov as saying: "Do you follow the orders of your President?…Well, I follow the orders of two Presidents."

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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