Moscow must take prompt measures against Russian mass media outlets engaged in anti-Azerbaijani provocations and prevent their recurrence in the future, Baku urged Moscow on Monday, Azernews reports
Reacting to what it described as a questioning of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and distortion of Azerbaijan’s map during the Great Game talk show on Russia’s First Channel on October 20-21, Azerbaijan’s embassy in Russia sent on Monday a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The note of protest pointed out that Russian political experts and pundits of Armenian descent participating in the show made explicit anti-Azerbaijani statements and called into doubt the country’s territorial integrity by misrepresenting its map.
The embassy emphasized that, throughout the program, the talk show’s guests openly fomented separatism, sowing the seeds of hostility between the two nations by enticing revanchist Armenian groups to resurrect the former conflict.
Despite Moscow’s official position frequently reiterated by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, the Russian state-funded TV channel, as the embassy emphasized, uses biased remarks and explicit political provocations that undermine the efforts to maintain long-term peace, stability, and security in the area.
Adding to the seriousness of the situation is the fact that the host and one of the direct participants in this talk show is Vyacheslav Nikonov, the first deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs and a member of the United Russia faction.
The embassy emphasized that such behavior by representatives of the Russian ruling party substantially hurts bilateral ties since it runs against the spirit of the Azerbaijani-Russian strategic partnership and allied interaction.
The Azerbaijani-Russian Declaration on Mutual Cooperation that the two countries signed in February, prohibits any actions that jeopardize strategic partnership and undermine the states’ sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.
