RIA and Solovyov Would Not Have Removed the Material or Apologized If They Were Not Forced 'From Above': Lragir

On June 10, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti removed an interview with the Minister of State of Artsakh, Artak Beglaryan, after Baku expressed dissatisfaction and blocked RIA's website. On June 22, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, avoided commenting on Baku's action, and in fact accused RIA of publishing the interview, labeling it as fake and misinformation, and expressed hope that there would be few cases of blocking Russian media in Baku. Writes Lragir.am.

“However, this was not the only incident in June. One of the main propagandists of the Russian state, Vladimir Solovyov, conducted an interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh, Davit Babayan, on his YouTube channel. Davit Babayan is known for his strongly pro-Russian positions and statements, and this interview was no exception. However, a few days later, Solovyov publicly apologized for the interview from Baku. Moreover, he apologized not on his YouTube channel, where he published the interview with Babayan, but on the state Russian television channel Rossiya 1. He stated that he made a mistake.

It is obvious that both RIA Novosti and Solovyov would not have removed the material or apologized if they had not been forced to do so 'from above.' The Russian regime is willing to humiliate even its chief propaganda resource, on which the country is built, in order not to offend Baku. This is only natural—Moscow and Baku are closely linked by their shared crimes regarding the Artsakh issue, the metastases of which have spread across all sectors.

Additionally, against the backdrop of these scandalous incidents, Moscow and Baku have agreed to collaborate closely in the media sector, jointly fighting against fakes and misinformation. It is clear that this formulation primarily concerns Armenian themes,” the news outlet reports.