Zakharova comments on fake news attributed to Russian and Azerbaijani officials
Those seeking to undermine the long-standing relations between Baku and Moscow are behind the "injection" of fake letters allegedly written by officials from Azerbaijan and Russia, according to Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Report, responding to journalists' questions about a fake letter purportedly written by Aykhan Hajizada, the press secretary of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zakharova stated, "If we ask the question, 'who benefits from this?', it's evident that the ones who benefit are those who don't want Russia and Azerbaijan to have normal relations, which have been built not just over decades, but with peoples living and coexisting in peace and respect for many years. And I hope they will continue to live this way. Those who find this unacceptable, and there are quite a few of them, are the ones who need this. However, I cannot say exactly who the mastermind is; that would require a proper investigation."
Zakharova noted that the West is behind the attempts to worsen relations between the two countries and, more broadly, among the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
"This agenda not only exists, but they [the West] don't even hide the fact that they are paying billions of dollars and are ready to do anything to ensure that our vast Eurasian space constantly experiences pressure through provocations and other dirty tools," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
In mid-January, a letter allegedly sent by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov was circulated online. The Russian Foreign Ministry called this letter a cynical forgery, having nothing to do with reality. The text, written in English, claimed that Russia allegedly could not guarantee the safety of using its airspace.
Earlier, a fake statement attributed to the press secretary of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry claimed that preliminary investigation results allegedly confirmed the version of an AZAL plane colliding with birds. Aykhan Hajizada, in turn, dismissed the "official" statement of the ministry about the causes of the AZAL passenger plane crash, which was circulated on social media on his behalf, as fake.
The AZAL passenger plane, operating flight Baku-Grozny, crashed on December 25, 2024, near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. Out of the 67 people on board, 38 died, and 29 survived. According to preliminary data, the plane crashed as a result of physical and technical external interference in Russian airspace.
