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Two Russia-linked disputes before 4 September 2020
Summary
Espionage charges in France and accusations from Baku put Moscow's relations with two countries under strain.
What did Russia's relations with France and Azerbaijan look like on 4 September 2020? In the days before that date, both were under visible strain.
On 30 August 2020, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly revealed that a lieutenant-colonel of the army, stationed at a NATO base in Italy, had been arrested and indicted on charges of espionage on behalf of another government. He was reported to have supplied "sensitive" documents to an officer of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency.
A day earlier, on 29 August 2020, a senior advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Russia of arming Armenia since the start of the recent border clashes.
Two different pressures
The two cases differ in kind. One concerns alleged intelligence-gathering inside a NATO setting and the French legal response to it. The other is a public accusation about military supplies in a regional confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Together, they show Moscow facing allegations on two fronts in the final days of August 2020: covert activity in the West and arms deliveries in the South Caucasus.
