Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev did not attend an informal Commonwealth of Independent States summit in St. Petersburg on Monday, citing his “busy work schedule,” according to state media in Azerbaijan.

The Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional organization established following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, consists of nine member nations.

At the Hermitage Museum, President Vladimir Putin hosted leaders from seven other member states, where they assessed cooperation efforts for 2025 and discussed strategic plans for the upcoming year.

A statement from Azerbaijan’s presidential office emphasized that the country “regularly” participates in CIS gatherings and “values its collaboration within the CIS framework,” despite Aliyev’s absence on that occasion.

Tensions between Moscow and Baku escalated in December 2024 when a passenger plane from Azerbaijan Airlines, heading to the Chechen Republic, was mistakenly shot down by Russian air defense systems, resulting in a crash in western Kazakhstan that claimed 38 lives out of the 62 passengers on board.

Initially, the Kremlin attempted to shift the blame for the incident, which angered Baku.

However, relations between the two nations seemed to take a turn for the better in October when Putin publicly admitted for the first time that Russian air defense missiles were responsible for the aircraft’s downfall.