On July 20, Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev traveled to Moscow on a working visit, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The talks focused on the situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia and Russian-Azerbaijani bilateral relations. The one-on-one meeting lasted two hours. 

Putin said that the "settlement of the situation in the region" remains one of the most important issues. The Russian president thanked Aliyev for the fact that so far compromise solutions have been reached throughout the process. 

The parties also discussed cooperation in the economic sphere. It was stressed that bilateral trade turnover had slightly increased in the first half of 2021, which was an important signal after the 10% slump in 2020. 

Aliyev thanked Putin for deliveries to Azerbaijan of more than 200,000 doses of Russia's "Sputnik V" vaccine against Covid-19. Joint production of the vaccine in Azerbaijan is also being discussed, he said. 

Azerbaijani media describe the meeting as "successful." It was stressed that Baku and Moscow have a common vision regarding the transport corridor that will connect Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhichevan. 

Meanwhile, Putin's spokesman Vladimir Peskov commented on the EU's possible mediation role in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Moscow is ready to welcome mediation by EU countries if it would help implement the agreements already reached, he said. In general, however, progress in this direction [the implementation of the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani trilateral declaration of Nov. 9, 2021] has "not been bad."