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Ilham Aliyev becomes Azerbaijan's president with an overwhelming majority of votes

Vladimir Putin congratulates newly-elected Ilham Aliyev

AP Photo/Sergei Grits

AP Photo/Sergei Grits

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Ilham Aliyev on re-election to the post of president of the Caucasus Republic of Azerbaijan, the Russian presidential press service reported on Thursday.

“Aliyev’s landslide victory at the presidential elections shows his high political authority and active support of his policy for socio-economic development of the country and stronger international positions of the country by the Azerbaijani citizens,” the Russian president said in a congratulatory telegram.

“The Russian president also voiced the intention to continue the joint work to broaden Russian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership, expand mutually beneficial bilateral ties in all spheres in the interests of the peoples of Russia and Azerbaijan and to ensure stability and security in the Transcaucasia,” the Kremlin press service quoted the congratulatory telegram as saying.

Ilham Aliyev has gained an overwhelming majority of votes that made 84.59% at the Azerbaijani presidential elections on Wednesday after the ballots were counted from more than 98% of polling stations, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Central Elections Commission Mazakhir Panakhov told a news conference in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, on Thursday.

Expert opinion

The recent presidential election can serve as a new starting point for cooperation between Moscow and Baku, the director of the Moscow State University's Information and Analysis Center for Socio-Political Studies, Aleksey Vlasov, said at a teleconference Moscow-Baku, held at the Itar-Tass news agency.

“Mutual goodwill and respect will undoubtedly have an effect on the dialogue between Russia and Azerbaijan,” Vlasov said. “We hope the recent elections will be a new starting point in the relations between Moscow-Baku on a wide range of issues of mutual concern.”

Vlasov believes that the incumbent Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, owes his impressive victory in the elections to the frugal use of incomes from the export of hydrocarbons and a responsible social policy, as well as his reliance on young talent.

“Youth projects, realized in Azerbaijan, allowed to mobilize a considerable part of the electorate and reach a high turnout, which is nowadays untypical of most post-Soviet countries,” Vlasov said.

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