On 13 September, it was reported that the air defence forces of Azerbaijan blocked the flight of a Russian military aircraft. Against the background of cooled relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani military forced the Russian military aircraft to turn around in the sky over the Caspian Sea, blocking the flight across its border. According to open monitoring resources, the Russian military had to additionally request permission to fly through the territory from Turkmenistan, and, in the near future, obviously, Russian military aircraft will have to continue to use the airspace of Turkmenistan.

The above mentioned actions happened at the same time when Armenia and Russia conducted joint military exercises involving more than 1500 personnel. RIA Novosti reported that ‘servicemen of the reconnaissance units of the Russian military base in Armenia carried out a landing in the rear of an imaginary enemy during bilateral battalion tactical exercises with the Armenian military. After completing a multi-kilometre march with full gear in the reconnaissance area, the servicemen revealed the location of the main forces of the mock enemy, transmitted the coordinates of objects and military equipment, disabled communications, raided the command post, captured important documents and prisoners,’ the message says. The press service also reported that within the framework of bilateral exercises, military personnel of air defence, electronic warfare (EW) units and crews of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the Russian military base suppressed and destroyed reconnaissance and strike 'drones' of the mock enemy.