Russian president’s visit to Azerbaijan has noting today with the country’s domestic policy and is conditioned by economic issues only, former U.S. ambassador Richard Kauzlarich said.

Some Azerbaijani officials believe that Moscow supports leader of the Azerbaijani opposition, but Kauzlarich considers this unserious.

Obama administration officials are concerned over one more undemocratic vote in Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with Azerbaijanis service of RFE/RL. Kauzlarich thinks U.S. must pay more attention not only to fair elections, but ensuring freedom of speech and religion.

“As an outside observer, I can say there are negative processes in Azerbaijan, and in fact the situation is very alarming,” he added.

He noted that relations between the West and Azerbaijan have changed dramatically over 20 years. U.S. is withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, and the importance of Azerbaijan, as a state supporting NATO operations, is reducing. Secondly, Europe’s energy demand is no longer growing. In general, if you look at the situation today and the one that was five years ago, it is clear that Azerbaijan’s importance for the West has declined. The U.S. has other priorities now, former Ambassador added.