By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW, July 25 (Reuters)
Russia and Azerbaijan are currently facing diplomatic friction due to the sudden departure of Mikhail Gusman from TASS, the Russian news agency. Internal tensions have permeated the country’s journalism for some time, illustrating how the war in Ukraine has increased cases of intolerance, especially towards public figures with ties to countries considered enemies or who share different political views.
Top TASS executive ousted after controversial visit
Russia dismissed a senior executive of the TASS state news agency on Friday after he attended an event hosted by the president of Azerbaijan, whose relations with Moscow have deteriorated in recent months. Mikhail Gusman, who oversaw international relations at TASS as first deputy CEO, interviewed world leaders on his own television show and moderated a meeting last month between President Vladimir Putin and international news agencies.
Earlier this month, Gusman caused a stir among Russian bloggers supporting Moscow’s war in Ukraine when he attended a media forum alongside Ukrainian journalists in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region Azerbaijan retook from Armenia in 2023. At the forum, he praised Azerbaijan for maintaining relations with a wide range of countries. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev told a Ukrainian journalist at the same forum that Ukrainians should never accept occupation.
Gusman’s dismissal was announced in a brief statement on the government’s website which did not give a reason. Some Russian media welcomed the move, labelling Gusman, who was born in Azerbaijan to a Soviet navy doctor, an Azeri spy. “That’s it. Azeri spy Gusman has been fired from his position as the first deputy CEO of TASS,” said the nationalist Telegram channel Mnogonational, which has about 400,000 subscribers.
Tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan rise after accident
Tragic events are behind the tensions between Moscow and Baku. After the downing of an Azerbaijani plane, which resulted in the deaths of citizens in Russian custody, the climate of distrust between the countries increased, going beyond a diplomatic incident. Ilham Aliyev’s government is demanding concrete action from Russia following the incident, intensifying the crisis.
Relations between Russia and its ex-Soviet neighbour Azerbaijan have sharply deteriorated in recent months after an Azerbaijani passenger plane flying to southern Russia crashed last December, killing 38 people on board. Aliyev has said he wants Russia to publicly acknowledge that it accidentally shot down the plane and to punish those responsible. Moscow has not done that, although President Vladimir Putin has apologised to Aliyev over the incident.
New chapter in the dispute: cross-accusations and repression
Tensions escalated further after two Azerbaijani men died in Russian custody following their arrests during police raids as part of a murder investigation. Azerbaijan then arrested Russian state media journalists in a move seen as retaliation. In a statement, TASS CEO Andrei Kondrashov thanked Gusman for his 30 years of service with the agency. Gusman did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether his dismissal was linked to the Azerbaijan trip.
The repression of journalists is a small fraction of how tensions between countries have gone beyond diplomatic concerns and have directly involved the press. There is a political instrumentation behind the media, and this is reflected in the detention of professionals who do something considered offensive or subversive.
Diplomacy is fragile between Moscow and Baku
The consequence of this growing rigidity of the Russian government could be alarming, and Gusman’s removal from TASS, due to actions considered misaligned with the geopolitical stance of the country, certainly signals that this international dispute has actions aimed at censoring and controlling the media, directly affecting press freedom and increasing isolation between counties.