diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
index d7d6ba0f90..f5d04317c2 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ import json
 from os.path import expanduser
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule, missing_required_lib
-from ansible.module_utils.ansible_release import __version__ as ANSIBLE_VERSION
+try:
+    from ansible.module_utils.ansible_release import __version__ as ANSIBLE_VERSION
+except Exception:
+    ANSIBLE_VERSION = 'unknown'
 from ansible.module_utils.six.moves import configparser
 import ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse as urlparse