Baku— August 11, 2025
Scandal-prone Russian lawmaker and retired general Andrei Gurulev — notorious for threatening the West with nuclear strikes and calling for the return of the Soviet-era Gulag — has now turned his rhetoric on Azerbaijan.
In his Telegram channel, the State Duma deputy from the ruling United Russia party floated the idea of imposing sanctions, banning Azerbaijani imports into Russia, and even extending Moscow’s so-called “special military operation” to the Azerbaijani border.
Gurulev’s history of extreme statements is long and well-documented. In June 2024, he said on state TV that Russia should launch a nuclear strike on the Netherlands to “bring Europe to its knees.” Later that year, reacting to Washington’s approval for Kyiv to use ATACMS missiles against Russian targets, he called for a “demonstrative” nuclear strike on the United States, claiming such a move would provoke “no retaliation.”
In early 2023, Gurulev told viewers of the hardline Tsargrad TV channel that citizens “working against the state” should be sent to a revived Gulag system: “I honestly say I want those harming our Motherland to happily swing pickaxes on the Kolyma highway.”
Now, he has set his sights on Azerbaijan — urging authorities to “clip the wings” of Azerbaijani entrepreneurs in Russia and raising the specter of cross-border military action.
Such threats are detached from reality. Russia today is not the global superpower of Gurulev’s imagination but a heavily sanctioned economy reliant on raw material exports and Chinese electronics imports. To talk of boycotting Azerbaijani fruit, vegetables, and wine — in a market already dominated by Turkish, Iranian, and Azerbaijani goods — is laughable.
More troubling are his military threats. It is difficult to see how a Russian army already stretched thin on one front, struggling with manpower, equipment, and ammunition shortages, could plausibly open another. In Gurulev’s fantasy world, perhaps anything is possible — but in real geopolitics, such ideas run aground against hard facts.
For Baku, such rhetoric is nothing new. Azerbaijan has steadily built strategic partnerships across the globe, strengthening its sovereignty, security, and international standing. Aggressive outbursts from Moscow only reinforce the country’s determination to chart its own course, guided by both strength and diplomatic skill.
Azerbaijan will not become a pawn in someone else’s geopolitical games — and stands ready to respond to any challenge with confidence and resolve.
