Azerbaijan’s president has revealed that former Russian and German officials were in Baku at the same time in mid-July for what may have been a meeting on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, though he said his government was neither notified about it nor aware of it as it happened.
President Ilham Aliyev made the disclosure during a press conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday. Baku, he said, only learned of the development after the fact.
“The flights statistics provide grounds to suggest that such a secret meeting was held in Baku,” Aliyev said, adding that Azerbaijan “received no notification regarding this from either Germany or Russia.” He continued, “Our territory was simply utilised without our knowledge.”
He was careful to note that Azerbaijan would not object to the purpose of any such contact if it advanced peace. “If this meeting serves to end the Ukrainian-Russian war, we, of course, welcome it,” he said.
The Officials Named
Aliyev said he had ordered his country’s State Border Service to investigate after media reports surfaced about a possible meeting, and that the reports were confirmed. He then named the figures involved.
“On 12 July, two prominent individuals, one of whom is reported to have served as chief of staff to Chancellor Merkel, Mr Pofalla and Mr Platzeck, arrived in Baku on a Berlin-Baku flight and returned from Baku to Berlin on 14 July,” he said.
Ronald Pofalla headed the Federal Chancellery and served as Minister for Special Affairs under Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2013 before becoming an executive at Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure division. He later co-chaired the Petersburg Dialogue, a semi-official German-Russian forum that Germany suspended in 2021 following Russia’s earlier invasion of Ukraine. He has kept up informal contacts with Russian political figures since then and has been described by The Times as a possible unofficial mediator between Berlin and Moscow.
Matthias Platzeck is a former Social Democrat minister-president of Brandenburg and once led the Forum on Russo-German Cooperation, a figure long associated with a rapprochement stance toward Russia within the SPD.
Aliyev said two Russian officials arrived in parallel. “At the same time, on 12 July, former prime minister of Russia Mr Zubkov and head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society of Russia Mr Fadeyev arrived in Baku from Moscow,” he said. “One departed Baku on 13 July and the other on 14 July.”
Viktor Zubkov served as Russian prime minister from September 2007 to May 2008 under President Vladimir Putin and now chairs the board of the state-controlled gas company Gazprom. His relationship with Putin dates back to the Russian leader’s time in St Petersburg, where Zubkov worked as deputy chairman of the city administration’s external relations committee. Valery Fadeyev has led Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, an advisory body to Putin that has also featured in various back-channel contexts, since 2019. Both are seen as members of Putin’s trusted inner circle.
Merz Points to Moscow
At the Berlin press conference, Merz said he had no information about the alleged Baku meeting, but stressed that Germany had spent months trying to persuade Putin to open negotiations, without success.
“Ending this war rests solely with the Russian government and the Russian president. Entering into talks and, if necessary, starting peace negotiations depends solely on him,” Merz said. “He continues to refuse to do so.” He thanked Aliyev for sharing a similar view of the war, its causes, and its possible resolution.
Aliyev, for his part, repeated his call for an immediate halt to the fighting. “The war must be stopped immediately,” he said. “Our primary goal is for this war to end and for peace to be secured in the region.”
