The ministry named its exhibits: a programme in the Chistota Ponimaniya project on 13 August, a Sputnik radio broadcast on 7 August and a programme on the Spas television channel on 16 August. By the ministry’s account, the three discussed interference in Azerbaijan’s internal politics and carried calls for violence against the country and its leadership. One claim was singled out as absurd: that Azerbaijan’s leadership had been entered in Russia’s register of terrorists and extremists.
A summons over rhetoric, with dates attached, moves the quarrel from commentary into the diplomatic record.
The ministry asked Moscow for urgent and effective measures to end what it called the provocations, threats and violent rhetoric against Azerbaijan in the information space.
3 named broadcasts in 9 days is a precise complaint by the standards of the genre, and precision is the point: a summons over rhetoric, with dates attached, moves the quarrel from commentary into the diplomatic record. No Russian reply had surfaced in the wires read by Wednesday morning.