Fake Letter Sent to Azerbaijan on Behalf of Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Ministry

The supposed letter from Sergey Lavrov, the head of Russia's Foreign Ministry, regarding the Russian airspace, which has been circulating online addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, is a gross forgery, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry reported by TASS.

"The letter from Sergey Lavrov, in which it is written in English that our country cannot guarantee the safe use of Russian airspace, is a cynical and crude forgery. This leak is a simple example of forgery intended to provoke an emotional reaction. The authors of this forgery have not hesitated to give it official attributes, sending it from a regular postal domain and a common email address. It is evident that such malicious disinformation is backed by a political order and an attempt to exploit the topic of the crash of the Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane near Aktau in Kazakhstan on December 25," the statement reads.