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Caviar diplomacy is a lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan, consisting of costly invitations to foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country. Caviar diplomacy also includes expensive gifts presented as "a tribute to the Eastern tradition." Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe // ESI, 24 May 2012 «Икорная дипломатия» Баку в сфере прав человека // RFE/RL, 12.11.2013 Council of Europe plagued by 'caviar diplomacy' // EURACTIV 23 03 2017 Will IOG go for Baku's 'caviar diplomacy' ? // Africa Intelligence, 9 02 2017 г. "Baku's "caviar diplomacy" which consisted of buying the good graces of certain members of the Council of Europe"
During the 2008 presidential elections, PACE observers included a large group of frankly pro-Azerbaijani MPs. The variant of the statement on elections, prepared by the head of the group of observers Andres Herkel, containing critical remarks, faced the rejection of the pro-Azerbaijani group consisting of Michael Hancock, Eduard Lintner and Paul Ville. Herkel was forced to declare his resignation if criticism did not go into the statement. During the referendum, which lifted the limits on the number of presidential terms for Ilham Aliyev, four PACE deputies – Eduard Lintner, Paul Wille, Khaki Keskin and Pedro Agramunt evaluated the referendum as the progress of democracy.
In addition to PACE representatives, observers from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (ODIHR) who have extensive experience of such observations, which revealed numerous violations of the procedure, which exclude the possibility of choice, were also present at the 2010 parliamentary elections. During the meetings of European observers, attended by PACE representatives in the person of Paul Ville and Pole Tadeusz Iwinski, the head of ODIHR observers, Audrey Glover from Great Britain, noted numerous violations that were not contested by PACE representatives. Nevertheless, the preliminary result of PACE monitoring, presented by Paul Ville, noted the compliance of preparations for elections with international standards, as well as transparent and effective work of the organizers. During the election, ODIHR observers recorded multiple violations and unprecedented ballot stuffing. By the closing of polling stations, the elections were assessed by the ODIHR as probably the most fraudulent they monitored. However, speaking on Azerbaijani television, Paul Wille stated that the elections were democratic and that he did not know about any violations. The ODIHR, in turn, subjected the elections to sharp criticism.
When asked if bribes were given to observers, Glover replied that she had not personally received one. After returning from Baku, a representative of the PACE group Wolfgang Grosruck from Germany accused Audrey Glover of being "unreliable", unprofessional, and also of not speaking out in defence of the PACE representatives when questions about bribes were asked. The ODIHR report published in January 2011 contained extremely critical assessments of the 2010 elections.
Investigations of the ESI have received resonance in Russian and international media: EU Observer, Azerbaijani lobbyists target EU opinion Azerbaijani lobbyists target EU opinion // EU Observer, 24 May 2012 Politiken, Grandprix-værter stopper kritik med kaviargaver // Politiken, 26. MAJ. 2012 DR, Aserbajdsjan har held med kaviardiplomati // DR, 26. MAJ. 2012 Radio Sarajevo, BBC, Аналитики из Европы критикуют «икорную дипломатию» Баку // BBC, 13 июня 2012 Der Tagesspiegel, Die Kaviar-Diplomatie // Der Tagesspiegel, 22.10.2012 Africa Intelligence, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Im Auftrag des Despoten // Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 20.11.2012 The Guardian and others. Europa: El lobby de los dictadores // Proceso, 30 DE ENERO DE 2015 «Икорная дипломатия» Азербайджана: в Совете Европы процветает коррупция? // Регнум, 26 Мая 2012
Varying estimates of the elections led to a scandal. On October 11, the representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner Stefan Fule, ignored the assessment of the European Parliament, including in its statement the results of the ODIHR. Кэтрин Эштон и Штефан Фюле раскритиковали президентские выборы в Азербайджане // Регнум, 11 Октября 2013 ( копия) The Commission on Foreign Relations of the EU discussed the report of Arlacchi. During the discussion, representatives of the "green" condemned the report and said that it discredited the European Parliament. The head of the Socialists' faction in the EU said that the PACE report cannot be considered reliable at all. It later emerged that a number of EU representatives traveled to Azerbaijan unofficially and on the dime of Azerbaijani organizations, which was regarded by European Voice as "stupidity or corruption", these trips were labeled "electoral tourism". MEPs must explain trips to Azerbaijan // EUROPEAN VOICE, 10/16/13 ( копия)
The US State Department in its turn discredited the observers from the House of Representatives, describing the elections as not meeting international standards, and expressing solidarity with the ODIHR's assessment. Azerbaijan Presidential Election (Press Statement) // U.S. Department of State, October 10, 2013
On September 10, 2015, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which Azerbaijan was condemned for "unprecedented repression". The resolution also called on the European authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of allegations of corruption against Ilham Aliyev and his family members, and to consider imposing targeted sanctions against officials related to the persecution. EU and Azerbaijan: Breaking Up or Muddling Through? // Eurasianet, September 16, 2015
The Milan prosecutor's office accused Volonte of two episodes: money laundering and accepting bribes. The court of Milan, having considered the second charge, recognized Volonte's immunity for this episode, as according to the Italian constitution, a deputy cannot be prosecuted for his professional activities. Parlamentare che si vende una legge? Non processabile. La sentenza: «I suoi atti sono insindacabili, dibattimento inutile» // Il fatto quotidiano, 22 maggio 2017 Later, the Supreme Court of Italy reversed this decision and returned the case to the Milan Court, citing the fact that the article of the Constitution is not about using his or her position for personal enrichment purposes. Corruzione, «immunità parlamentare non preclude perseguibilità». La Cassazione annulla proscioglimento Volontè // Il fatto quotidiano, 24 luglio 2017
Ex-ambassador of Azerbaijan to the European Union Arif Mammadov told The Guardian that he spent about 30 million euros for the services of lobbyists as representative of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Council of Europe: "All members of the Azerbaijani delegation knew about this figure, although it never appeared anywhere. It was said, that the money is intended for bribing members of other delegations and the PACE as a whole." A number of PACE deputies said that they knew about proposals to bribe the European deputies. Fresh claims of Azerbaijan vote-rigging at European human rights body // The Guardian, 20/04/2017
Elkhan Suleymanov, the representative of Azerbaijan in PACE, was called the "curator" of Volonte and other European deputies. The European press cites examples of how Volonte recalled his requests to the PACE, informing Suleymanov that "your every word is an order for me". Through the company, from which Volonte received his payments, in total of about one billion euros were conducted. Attempts by Armenian MEPs to raise the issue of corruption in PACE came up against the opposition of PACE President Pedro Agramunt, another subject of investigation of the "caviar diplomacy", who deprived them of their voice and prevented the investigation. Der Tagesspiegel qualifies this investigation as "the biggest scandal in the history of Europe". After the publication in the media, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, called on Agramut to personally provide an independent external investigative body without any further delay. Agramunt and the leaders of the five political groups rejected the proposals of the CoE official Wojciech Sawicki, which sets out the conditions for an independent investigation. However, after the visit of Agramunt to Syria, the PACE Bureau expressed to him a vote of no confidence and in fact removed Agramunt from real power, PACE Bureau declares 'no confidence' in Pedro Agramunt as President // Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 28/04/2017 after which in April 2017 the Parliamentary Assembly formed a commission to investigate alleged corruption accusations. Совет Европы расследует возможный подкуп парламентариев Азербайджаном // DW, 24.04.2017 Die Spur des Geldes // Der Tagesspiegel, 22.03.2017 Its report was published in April 2018. In the course of several follow-up hearings to the report of the Assembly's Investigation Body (on 25 April 2018, 15 May 2018 and 27 June 2018) 4 PACE members were deprived of certain rights and 14 members, accused of accepting gifts and bribes from the government of Azerbaijan in 2013, were expelled from the Assembly's premises for life.
After 4 different court hearings held between 2018 and 2019, in January 2021, Criminal Section X of the Court of Milan sentenced Luca Volontè to four years in prison for taking bribes from Azerbaijani politicians.
In March 2019, Karin Strenz, a German parliament member from the ruling CDU party, was fined for failing to notify the Bundestag of additional earnings from Azerbaijan. Earlier, she had been included in the list of "Caviar diplomacy" lobbyists. On January 30, 2021, the Bundestag stripped Karin Strentz of parliamentary immunity, as she was accused of receiving bribes in the amount of at least 22 thousand euros to lobby for Azerbaijan's interests in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The case involves also the ex-member of Bundestag from CSU Eduard Lintner, a former parliamentary secretary of state under the Minister of the Interior. According to the prosecutor's office, Lintner received about 4 million euros from Azerbaijan in the period from 2008 to 2016 and transferred a significant part of the money to individual PACE members, who were supposed to speak positively about the elections in Azerbaijan and oppose demands for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
On March 4, 2021, the German Bundestag deprived Axel Fischer of parliamentary immunity, who is being investigated by the BKA for receiving money from Azerbaijan to lobby its interests in the Council of Europe.
Vice reported on the involvement of CDU MPs Axel Fischer, Mark Hauptmann, Thomas Bareiß and Olav Gutting in the "Azerbaijan affair". The article also reported on TV Berlin, a local Berlin channel that broadcasts "regime-friendly interviews" for Azerbaijan. Other Union politicians who came under fire for their connections and support of Azerbaijan are Nikolas Löbel, Tobias Zech and Joachim Pfeiffer.
On January 29, 2024 German prosecutors brought bribery and corruption charges against Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner.
Based on his investigations and interviews with some of the Swedish journalists who participated in the trips, Canbäck writes that "the purpose of these trips is to spread an Azerbaijani view of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and that the opportunity to ask critical questions or control who and where to meet people has been extremely limited." Journalists who asked critical questions received "brusque answers", calling such questions as "typical Armenian" and "Armenian propaganda". One of the interviewed journalists, mentioned that "It was not even possible to refer to Amnesty or Human Rights Watch, because they were allegedly bought by Armenia and then the discussion was over." Canbäck's investigations resulted in criticism from media and journalist organizations, questioning the judgement of the participants and their journalistic ethics, resulting in reprimands for some of the participants who either resigned from their positions or were suspended from any reporting which would involve issues concerning the Caucasus.
Later a report uncovered another paid trip Polish MEP Tomasz Poręba had made to Azerbaijan after which, he also started voicing pro-Azerbaijani views. When asked why he had failed to declare the trip his lawyer said that he was freelancing in Azerbaijan. Latvian MEP Andris Ameriks similarly went to Azerbaijan and sang its praises, but the EU Parliament committee he claimed to represent had no idea he was there.
Several publications have emphasised how these trips raise questions on the reliability of EU Parliament ethics codes and the importance to enforce them.
According to an investigation by Politico, Edward Mermelstein, visited Azerbaijan with another Eric Adams official, Rana Abbasova, on an economic development trip in May 2023. The visit was paid for by the Azerbaijani government, which also covered some expenses for Mayor's Office of International Affairs Commissioner. According to Politico, this trip is part of a pattern of foreign governments and organizations paying for trips taken by Adams' officials. According to City Hall spokesperson, the primary purpose of the visit was to foster economic development and share best practices between communities. Mermelstein reported four other payments for city-related travel in 2023, including a trip to Dubai and a global summit in Seoul. Adams visited the country at least twice, and an Azerbaijani cultural group hosted a fundraiser for his 2021 campaign. City Hall said that Mermelstein took similar trips paid for by city government that would not have to be reported.
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