From the Caspian Sea NYT Story, a flashback from my time in Baku, Azerbaijan

Introduction, The Caspian Sea Trade Route

Recently, the NYT wrote about Iran using the Caspian Sea to trade with Russia away from the sanctions regime.  Above is a map showing the Caspian Sea trade route discussed in the article. Here is a gift link to read it.  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/world/middleeast/caspian-sea-iran-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hVA.g8DA.WVdPI6GueiE9&smid=url-share

If you note that Baku, Azerbaijan is prominent there along the Caspian Sea Trade Route, that might explain why this article reminded me of an episode from back in 2008 that makes for a good story that I hope you enjoy.  

My 2008 Work in Baku

2008 brought us in the U.S. an amazing Presidential general election resulting in the election of President Obama.  During that year, I was working on a civil society project for IFES in Azerbaijan.  https://www.ifes.org/ does civil society work around the world to promote democracy.  Several times that year, I traveled to Baku, Azerbaijan to work on a election complaint processing project, first visiting in late May/early June, then again in July-Aug, and finally in October.  I worked in an IFES office in Baku, with Dan Blessington who was the IFES Country Director, along with several Baku local office professionals.   

It would not be surprising that back then there were quite different perspectives on how fully democratic the election process was.  The officials from the presidential administration of AZ President Ilham Alyiev, in the country's Central Election Commission, were bullish about how open and democratic they were.  The opposition candidates and lawyers were bearish, to put it mildly!  Our task, nonetheless was to give the officials the tools and knowledge of how to have fully transparent and responsive election complaint processing, for a time when there was actually the political will to use them.  

Sadly, it was not long after my departure and submission of my after action report, that the Azerbaijan government demonstrated the political will was still distant to change from a post soviet dominant-party system:  President Alyiev pushed through a constitutional change to remove the presidential two term limit that had previously been in place.  And not much has changed in that respect rolling the tape forward. https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/country/azerbaijan

The Russia/Georgia War  

In any event, what happened during my second 2008 visit is something I will never forget.  Now Tbilisi in Georgia was a day's drive away from Baku, and Dan and I had even discussed visiting there to bring back some delicious Georgian wine.  By July, tensions between Russia and Georgia were visibly worsening, though few people then expected that open war was only days away.  But fighting erupted in South Ossetia on the night of August 7–8, after which Russian forces moved rapidly beyond the separatist regions into undisputed Georgian territory. By August 11, Russian troops had advanced deep enough that many feared they might continue all the way to Tbilisi and potentially overthrow the Georgia government.  During this Russo-Georgian War the entire region was tense, so from the perspective of people working in the region — especially in civil society, diplomacy, journalism, or development — it was not obvious whether the Russo-Georgian War would remain limited to Georgia or become something wider across the post-Soviet space.

So during my second visit, obviously, nix to any idea of visiting Tbilisi, and the NGOs and democracy-support organizations began scrambling to think through and plan evacuation routes, and staff safety.  Dan told us that, from either USAID or State (can't recall which), our IFES office was to set up and report our exfil plans should they be needed and if no air travel was available.  

The Baku IFES Exfil Plan

Sadly, geography did not smile on the IFES office driveable exfil plan.  Along the north was Georgia, some of which was then a war zone.  On the northeast,  Azerbaijan borders Russia directly, where we also weren't welcome.  Because of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area at the west border with Armenia, that direction too was a no-go. 

(Note:  following a 2023 offensive, Azerbaijan re-established control over the region, resulting in the dissolution of the breakaway republic and the exodus of nearly all its 100,000 Armenian inhabitants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_conflict

Directly south, Azerbaijan borders Iran.  Now relations were then fine between these two neighboring countries, and I remember that one of the IFES Baku office local staff members regularly visited her family in Iran.  But then (and even now, at the moment), we Americans were not welcome to cross that border.  So see the map below where I've helpfully captioned "Red Arrows = Nyet"

We were in a quandary, not being able to comply with the requested planning task.  

Coming to our rescue was one of the IFES local office professionals, who lived in Baku.  She knew someone who had a boat at the Baku harbor on the Caspian Sea.  She arranged for us to exfil not by land, but by sea, should it become necessary!  So the Caspian Sea was not only a current news topic of Iran/Russia trade, but also the salvation of our required exfil plan back in 2008 during the Russia-Georgia war!  

Happily, of course, the Russians stopped before Tbilisi, and no Baku NGO exfill was then needed.  Unhappily, many observers saw this Russian incursion into Georgia as a precursor to Russia's incursion in Ukraine in 2014 and then full invasion in 2022.  

If you were involved in this episode, please send me your comments.  Otherwise, hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane for me.