Can anyone please advise me on the following -

I can obtain a retirement visa, but my wife, from Azerbaijan is 20 years my junior and obviously is not eligible. Is it possible for me to sponsor her if I have a retirement visa?

Being from Azerbaijan we have great difficulty in obtaining visas for her, to any country outside of the FSU.

With the marriage certificate and a copy of your passport with the retirement extension of stay in it she should be able to obtain a non immigrant O visa. Once she has that you can both visit immigration and have her extended on the basis of your retirement one year extension of stay as your dependent - once done you can continue to do that each year (unless the rules change - they almost did this last year).