The Azerbaijan authorities are offended by an international agency.

Head of Azerbaijan’s state oil fund Shahmar Movsumov said Azerbaijan may quit membership to  the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) after the agency downgraded Azerbaijan’s status in the group from compliant to a candidate country.

According to Movsumov, “EITI started protecting interests of NGOs and exerting pressure on Azerbaijan”, haqqin. az reported.

During the March meeting, EITI discussed the possibility to cancel Azerbaijan’s membership, but finally the decision to downgrade the status was made.

He added that Azerbaijani leadership disagrees with the decision and will consider a possibility of quitting the organization.