Azerbaijan committed to ties with Russia, but negative media environment hinders relations, envoy says

Azerbaijan remains committed to further developing its strategic partnership and allied relations with Russia, but a negative information environment in Russian media regarding Azerbaijan is hindering bilateral ties, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia Rahman Mustafayev told RTVI.

Mustafayev said Azerbaijan-Russia relations were generally showing positive momentum, with increased dialogue between governments, ministries and other institutions, as well as growing interregional cooperation.

“Baku remains committed to further developing bilateral cooperation with Moscow based on the principles of strategic partnership and alliance,” Mustafayev said.

He said this position was reaffirmed by President Ilham Aliyev during telephone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 11 and July 28.

According to the ambassador, a number of Russian experts, bloggers and journalists have been creating a highly negative information environment around Azerbaijan on social media and in the media.

“According to my information, at least 96 Russian news portals, Telegram and YouTube channels and other media resources, with varying frequency, are portraying Azerbaijan as a state unfriendly towards Russia,” the diplomat said.

Mustafayev said Baku had repeatedly raised with Moscow through diplomatic channels specific cases of insulting and provocative statements directed against Azerbaijan, its people and its leadership.

“Baku considers this situation unacceptable and expects Moscow to take concrete measures to address it,” he said.

The ambassador said that despite repeated discussions at various political levels, such activity had continued and had taken increasingly threatening forms.

He said the issue had reached the stage of discussions about scenarios for interference in Azerbaijan’s domestic political processes and calls for physical violence against the Azerbaijani people and leadership.

“Baku has always been open to dialogue, but in this case the priority remains a clear political assessment of the situation that has emerged in the Russian media space regarding Azerbaijan and concrete steps by Moscow to improve it,” Mustafayev said.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia were given a new legal framework after the two countries signed a Declaration on Allied Cooperation in Moscow on Feb. 22, 2022.

One of the main sources of tension in bilateral relations in recent years has been a dispute over the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near Aktau in December 2024.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said earlier that the two countries had moved beyond that difficult period and that fully restoring relations was important. On July 17, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Gulnar Nazimqizi