Gusman was released after the criticism of the PROVE bloggers who were dissatisfied with his journey on Shusha Global Media Forum in Azerbaijan, where the President of the Country Ilham Alijew spoke. During a conversation with him, Gusman said that Azerbaijan conducts “a completely unique foreign policy.” “Your policy is based on some, very clear, very balanced political principles in my opinion,” Gusman said, comparing Alijew to the “Virtuoso violinist”.
Bloggers were also collected by political scientist Sergei Markow, who also arrived at the forum. They both compliment Alijew when “our journalists sit in Azerbaijani dungeons, taken as hostages” – wrote Sergei Kołasnikov, author of the Zergulio channel on a telegram.
The “war correspondent” of the Komsomol truth Alexandr Kots added that Gusman and Markow went to Azerbaijan to “bow” to Alijew.
75-year-old Gusman was born in Baku. He is a journalist, radio and television presenter, from 1999 he was the first deputy director of the TASS Information Agency. He also heads the Russian Committee of the UNESCO International Communication Program, has the title of a distinguished cultural worker and a distinguished Russian journalist.
Crisis on the Moscow – Baku line
The crisis in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia began after the Azal airline disaster, which occurred on December 25, 2024. He flew from Baku to Grozny, but was shot down by air defense systems and crashed in Kazakhstan. In mid -July, Baku announced that he was preparing a lawsuit against Moscow. She added that he intends to turn to the international tribunal, because “for seven months Azerbaijan did not receive any sensible response from the Russian side” about the course of the investigation in this matter.
Relations between countries have worsened even more after the mass detention of members of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Russia and Russians in Azerbaijan. At the end of June, law enforcement agencies detained about 50 people from Azerbaijan in order to check their participation in the killings and attacks committed in 2001–2011.
The two main suspects, the brothers Husejn and Ziaddin Safarov, died during investigators. In response to this, security forces in Azerbaijan stopped and beat over 10 Russians, and also carried out searches in the editorial office of “Sputnik Azerbaijan”, arresting two of its employees.
