diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
index 6385db83d3a..2dcb23a9d90 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/azure_rm_common.py
@@ -14,12 +14,9 @@ import json
 from os.path import expanduser
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
+from ansible.module_utils.ansible_release import __version__ as ANSIBLE_VERSION
 from ansible.module_utils.six.moves import configparser
 import ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse as urlparse
-try:
-    from ansible.release import __version__ as ANSIBLE_VERSION
-except ImportError:
-    ANSIBLE_VERSION = 'unknown'
 
 AZURE_COMMON_ARGS = dict(
     auth_source=dict(