Category: Azer News

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Japanese government on Monday of trying to divert attention from its “openly aggressive militaristic line” by condemning Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, AzerNEWS reports.

He suggested Japan should instead “mind its own business” and added that its recent moves toward remilitarization are “deeply alarming.”

“Our Japanese colleagues, our neighbors, have certainly crossed the line of decency in their completely unacceptable statements that the Russian president cannot visit any part of Russian territory,” Lavrov said. He confirmed that the Foreign Ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador last week to discuss “how an ambassador should conduct his work in the host country,” but that the envoy has still not visited the ministry.

Greece has rejected Trkiye’s decision to establish two national marine parks in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, arguing that the move is illegal where the designated areas extend beyond Turkish territorial waters, AzerNEWS reports.

Under two decrees published in Trkiye’s official government gazette on August 16, Ankara designated one marine park between the Fethiye district of Mugla and Kas district of Antalya, while the second covers an area in the northern Aegean near the coasts of Tekirdag and Çanakkale.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the designations could not have legal effect in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

‘To the extent that the parks cover high seas areas, their establishment is illegal, as no state is entitled, according to the Law of the Sea, to unilaterally establish marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction,’ the ministry said.

Athens also claimed that the designated marine parks extend into areas of the Greek continental shelf.

‘This is, therefore, an action that creates no legal effect whatsoever, either in respect of the high seas or in respect of Greece’s rights over its continental shelf,’ the ministry said.

Greece further argued that Trkiye’s unilateral move could not establish new facts on the ground or alter existing rights under international law.

‘The unilateral establishment by Trkiye of ‘national’ marine parks also in areas beyond its jurisdiction cannot create faits accomplis or affect in any way rights deriving from International Law,’ the ministry added.

Athens contrasted Trkiye’s decision with Greece’s own establishment of national marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas.

According to the Greek Foreign Ministry, those parks were established exclusively within Greek territorial waters and therefore complied fully with the Law of the Sea.

The dispute comes against the backdrop of longstanding, historic disagreements between Greece and Trkiye over maritime boundaries, continental shelf rights and jurisdiction in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

The Baku leg of the production of the adventure film “Armour of God 4: Ultimatum” has officially concluded, marking the largest foreign film production project to date in Azerbaijan, AzerNEWS reports.

The successful execution of the Baku shoot was made possible through the coordinated efforts of 26 state institutions and organizations.

Under the coordination of the Ministry of Culture, key government bodies, including the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, provided comprehensive support to the international production team.

More than 200 Azerbaijani film professionals and representatives of dozens of local companies participated in the production.

Their involvement provided valuable opportunities to gain international production experience, develop professional expertise, and strengthen cooperation between Azerbaijan’s film industry and international production partners.

Following the completion of filming in Azerbaijan, the film’s star Jackie Chan met with representatives of the state institutions and companies involved in the project.

He expressed his appreciation for their support and contribution to the successful completion of the Baku production.

The fourth film in the “Armour of God” series once again stars Jackie Chan as the legendary Asian Hawk. The story follows his character as he returns to action during a worldwide search for an ancient artifact called the Tumar, with a reward of more than $20 million at stake.

Production is taking place in several countries and involves actors and film professionals from around the world. The project also marks the first joint production involving film crews from Kazakhstan and China.

Baku was selected as one of the film’s locations as the new story develops around the Caspian Sea. Several important scenes were shot in different parts of the city.

HD Hyundai Electric announced on Monday that it has completed the development of an environmentally friendly 420-kilovolt circuit breaker, a key piece of equipment used in high-voltage power transmission networks, AzerNEWS reports, citing Korean media.

The new breaker does not use sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a highly potent greenhouse gas that has traditionally been used as an insulating and arc-quenching medium in electrical equipment. According to the company, the new product is the first of its kind developed by a South Korean power-equipment manufacturer and only the third such product in the world.

Instead of SF6, the breaker uses C4-FN, a fluoronitrile-based gas mixture with a global warming potential approximately 98% lower than SF6. Developing the technology was not simply a matter of replacing one gas with another. HD Hyundai Electric had to redesign key parts of the breaker, including its insulation system and switching mechanism.

The new 420-kV rating is particularly important for the European market because it is compatible with the 400-kV transmission networks widely used by major European electricity operators. As countries accelerate the transition to renewable energy, high-voltage infrastructure is becoming increasingly important for moving electricity over long distances.

HD Hyundai Electric is already in discussions with a major British utility about a long-term supply agreement and expects to secure its first order by early next year, according to a company spokesperson.

The company also plans to develop additional SF6-free circuit breakers rated at 300 kV and 362 kV within the next three years.

The move is significant because SF6 is extremely effective for electrical insulation, but it is also one of the most powerful greenhouse gases known. Its global warming potential is thousands of times higher than that of carbon dioxide, which is why the power industry is under growing pressure to find safer alternatives.

If SF6-free technology becomes widespread, equipment such as these breakers could help reduce the environmental impact of electricity grids while supporting the massive expansion of renewable power and cross-border electricity networks.

A Moscow court has placed Conor Kennedy, the son of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and great-nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on Russia’s wanted list over his service with Ukraine’s International Legion, AzerNEWS reports.

Russian authorities accuse Kennedy of ‘mercenarism,’ a charge related to his participation in Ukraine’s armed forces. He reportedly faces between seven and 10 years in prison if convicted.

Kennedy joined Ukraine’s International Legion in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. He reportedly served for a short period before leaving later that year, with reports indicating that he had departed by October 2022.

Kennedy previously described his decision to serve in Ukraine as something he wanted to undertake without receiving special treatment because of his family background. He said he disclosed his location to only one person and used his real name with another person in Ukraine.

‘I didn’t want to be treated differently there,’ Kennedy said.

He said he had no previous military experience and was not a skilled marksman, but learned quickly and was eventually sent to the northeastern front.

‘I was also willing to die there,’ Kennedy wrote.

Kennedy described his time in Ukraine as brief and called the people he served alongside ‘the bravest I have ever known.’

‘This war will shape the fate of democracy in this century,’ he wrote, urging others to support Ukraine.

Ukraine created the International Legion shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion to allow foreign volunteers to serve in its armed forces.

The development adds a political dimension to the case given Kennedy’s prominent family background. His father, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a member of the Kennedy political dynasty and currently serves as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Conor Kennedy studied at Harvard University, later trained as a lawyer and has also been involved in environmental activism.

The Iranian government is reportedly preparing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for a potentially wider confrontation with the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited Iranian and Arab officials, AzerNEWS reports.

The report says Tehran has used the current period of negotiations with Washington not only to pursue diplomacy but also to strengthen its military position and prepare for a possible escalation.

According to the report, over the past two months Iran has increased the IRGC’s control over the country’s military structures, appointed new commanders, expanded missile and drone production and strengthened its domestic counterintelligence network.

The changes come amid a broader restructuring of Iran’s security establishment under Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Several veteran IRGC figures have been elevated to senior military and security positions, reflecting a harder line toward Washington and a greater emphasis on preparing for a prolonged confrontation.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that IRGC advisers have been sent to Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, where they are coordinating with Iran-aligned armed groups. Intercepted communications reviewed by the newspaper reportedly indicate that Iranian advisers have been involved in preparations for a broader regional confrontation.

The developments come despite ongoing diplomatic efforts between Tehran and Washington. The two sides reached a memorandum of understanding in June that temporarily reduced hostilities, while the United States subsequently held off on a planned attack after mediators reported progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The reported military preparations suggest, however, that Iran’s leadership views diplomacy and military readiness as parallel tracks rather than mutually exclusive options. Recent reporting has similarly described the IRGC as gaining greater influence over Iran’s decision-making as negotiations with Washington remain uncertain.

German defence company Rheinmetall will supply another 149 mobile medical stations to the country’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, under a contract worth more than pound 500 million, AzerNEWS reports.

According to the company, production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027. The new order, placed in July, will increase the total number of mobile medical systems ordered by the Bundeswehr to 165, while the overall value of the contracts will rise to around pound 600 million.

The mobile medical stations are designed to provide first aid and emergency medical care to military personnel close to areas of operation. Each system consists of two containers and can operate independently, without requiring permanent infrastructure.

The stations can be deployed and dismantled relatively quickly by a team of just four soldiers. Their medical equipment can also be configured according to the mission, allowing the systems to be adapted for different operational requirements.

Another important advantage is their mobility. The units can be transported using various types of military vehicles and deployed even in difficult or remote terrain, giving the Bundeswehr greater flexibility when providing medical support to troops.

The contract is also notable because it highlights a broader shift in modern defence planning: medical support is increasingly being treated as an integral part of military readiness rather than simply a rear-area function. In a high-intensity conflict, the ability to provide treatment quickly and close to the battlefield can have a major impact on the survival and recovery of wounded personnel.

For Rheinmetall, the order further strengthens its position as one of Germany’s key defence suppliers as Berlin continues to expand and modernize the Bundeswehr’s capabilities.

The Azerbaijan Ministry of Finance released its seven-month budget execution data on Monday in the kind of quiet, matter-of-fact format that fiscal ministries favour when the numbers are good. The budget revenues of the State for January through July 2026 amounted to 23.594 billion manats, which is roughly $13.88 billion, showing an excess over the projection by 855.9 million manats ($503.5 million), or 3.8%. The budget expenditures amounting to 20.174 billion manats ($11.87 billion) exceeded the same period last year by 1.2%, resulting in a budget surplus of 3.42 billion manats ($2.01 billion). The budget surplus of the consolidated budget, consisting of state enterprises and extrabudgetary funds, amounted to 5.1 billion manats ($3 billion), or approximately 4.45% of GDP. This means that Azerbaijan belongs to the category of countries that have become extremely rare today in the world, countries that earn more than they spend.

To appreciate what the Azerbaijani figures represent, it helps to place them alongside the fiscal performance of countries facing comparable global pressures. The IMF trimmed its 2026 global growth forecast by 0.3 percentage points in April, citing tariff wars, trade fragmentation, and the energy shock triggered by the Hormuz blockade. The effects are visible in public finances across most major economies.

Revenue breakdown and oil windfall

Contributions from the State Tax Service made up the biggest chunk of January-July revenue, at 11.474 billion manats ($6.75 billion), which were 8% higher than projected. The State Customs Committee collected 3.752 billion manats ($2.21 billion), or 99.9% of its target, which represents an annual rise of 4.5%, in contrast to last year’s fall. Transfers from SOFAZ, the State Oil Fund, came precisely equal to forecast at 7.490 billion manats ($4.41 billion), representing about 32% of the entire state budget revenue. ‘Other income’ – income from other sources not falling under taxes and customs – came in 54.4% higher than projected at 427.8 million manats ($251.6 million), which is not a rounding error and indicates above-average state revenue from asset sales and services.

It is, therefore, worth analyzing the tax performance of the non-oil sector. Between January and July, the taxes collected from the non-oil sectors were 8.488 billion manats ($4.99 billion) – 11.8% higher than the same period the previous year and 3.1% ahead of projections. Against the background of a budget that had been put together based on an oil price benchmark of $65 per barrel, growth of 11.8% in non-oil tax revenues is a structural indication that the economic diversification strategy is paying dividends.

In regard to the oil windfall headline, the honest reading of the surplus requires acknowledging that elevated global energy prices are doing significant work. The country’s budget for 2026 was predicated on oil prices at $65 per barrel, much lower than the price of Brent after the Hormuz blockade started back in February. Under today’s spot prices, every dollar above the budget estimate creates extra income that goes partially through SOFAZ transfers and partially through tax receipts from the upstream sector. According to Fitch Ratings, Azerbaijan will keep its current account surplus at 4.5% of GDP for the entire year.

The structural counterpoint is what Finance Minister Sahil Babayev said in May: “While the share of oil in the state budget stood at 48% in 2025, we expect this figure to drop to 42-43% this year. By 2030, we plan for this metric to reach just 30%.”

The projection given by him – 48% to 30% oil dependence in five years – is getting confirmed in part by the January-July figures. A year-over-year increase in tax revenue from non-oil sources by 11.8%, in an environment in which the overall economic activity has been buoyed up by the oil price rally, indicates that the non-oil base is growing more quickly than the oil rally itself could have generated. This is the very criterion needed for diversification: not just a simple growth in non-oil taxes, but a faster growth than the growth of the oil windfall in percentage terms.

A 4.45% consolidated budget surplus is a genuinely strong fiscal position by any comparative standard. It is worth noting the conditions that have produced it. The Hormuz blockage, the Red Sea turmoil, and the pipeline constraints in Russia have made the energy market tight and provided great profits for Azerbaijan as an energy exporter in direct proportion to the losses of energy importers in Europe and Asia. Azerbaijan’s fiscal strength in 2026 is partially explained by a worldwide disaster that hits other countries harder than Baku. This cannot be taken as criticism – it is a structural feature of being an oil and gas exporter in the supply-constrained environment, and over a decade Azerbaijan created the necessary infrastructure (Southern Gas Corridor, Middle Corridor, renewable energy corridor) to capitalize on this structural advantage. But one should keep in mind that the sustainability of this surplus depends on the development trajectory of the non-oil economy and the duration of the present energy market situation.

The 748,000 payment orders executed by treasury bodies “on time and in full”, the Ministry of Finance’s lead headline in its release, is the mundane administrative detail that serious fiscal analysts track most closely. Payment execution discipline is the difference between a surplus that improves public services and a surplus that sits on a spreadsheet while government contractors wait for their money. That Azerbaijan’s treasury is processing at that volume without arrears, in a year when expenditures are 1.2% above the prior period, is the operational quality indicator behind the headline fiscal performance. It is the number that makes everything else work.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that it has shot down more than 200 “enemy aircraft” since the start of the war.

According to AzerNEWS, it was stated by Major General Mostafa Izadi, Deputy Commander of the IRGC, in a statement.

Izadi described the conflict as a “hybrid war” and said that Iran’s enemies had sought to destabilize the country both internally and through military operations.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran not only did not disintegrate, and the Islamic system was not weakened; on the contrary, the Islamic Republic demonstrated that it is stronger and more determined in Iran than ever before,” he added.

It should be recalled that the latest escalation in US-Iran relations began on July 8. On that day, US forces launched several waves of strikes against Iranian territory, reportedly in response to an attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first such strikes following a memorandum signed between Washington and Tehran. On the same day, US President Donald Trump announced the termination of the ceasefire with Iran.

In response, Tehran began striking US facilities located in Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Oman. Iran currently says that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed.

The rapid growth of OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies has created a new wave of millionaires and billionaires who are spending their fortunes on homes, private jets, supercars, and yachts, AzerNEWS reports, citing the Financial Times.

According to UBS, the number of billionaires worldwide increased by 13% over the past year to 3,302. In San Francisco, the median price of a private home reached $2.1 million, rising by nearly 25% year-on-year.

However, the new tech elite differs from traditional wealthy individuals. Young millionaires value speed, privacy, personalization, and a healthy lifestyle more than ostentatious luxury. They want to book private jets through apps and WhatsApp, pay in cryptocurrency, and receive healthy meals instead of champagne.

Lamborghini Urus models, Ferrari and Porsche cars are proving popular, as are functional yachts equipped with gyms, Starlink, and gear for outdoor activities. Among the buyers are Nvidia employees and investors who have benefited from the AI boom.

A private jet is one of the clearest symbols of immense wealth, according to the FT. Flexjet, a company that offers fractional aircraft ownership, has seen an increase in customers who made their fortunes through AI or other technology-company stock offerings. Flexjet CEO Andrew Collins said this trend has reduced the average age of the company’s clients by 10 years.

People working in industries related to AI are also becoming wealthy. One client of charter group FlyVicto, a data-center builder, booked flights across the US and Europe while waiting for the purchase of a new long-range Bombardier aircraft to be completed.

Charles Robinson, founder of charter marketplace EnterJet, said these “digital-native” clients not only want to pay in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies but also generally prefer booking through the company’s app or WhatsApp, bypassing brokers and the “theater of traditional private aviation.”

Multimillionaires and billionaires who have made their fortunes in AI favor exclusive features and are willing to replace their cars after just six months to get the latest models.

Lamborghini has been particularly successful in attracting the younger generation of AI entrepreneurs with its Urus performance SUV, which brokers told the publication can be extensively personalized, with more than 150 colors to choose from. In addition to customization options, young buyers can add aerodynamic and carbon-fiber body kits to their Lamborghinis, changing the appearance of the vehicle.