Rahman Mustafayev spoke on the record to RTVI, in an interview published on Saturday, August 23: "at least 96 Russian news portals, Telegram and YouTube channels" and other media with multimillion audiences promote, with varying regularity, theses about Azerbaijan. RTVI ran the conversation under a headline asking whether the two capitals are in crisis, with the questions put by Ekaterina Zabrodina. Earlier relays had carried the count without a setting; the interview anchors it.
His asks were verbatim too: "a clear political assessment" of the situation, and "the adoption by Moscow of concrete measures." The hedge came with them: no crisis, relations show "positive dynamics" overall, with the media campaign the obstruction he named. Both asks went out in Russian, through a Russian-language outlet.
“at least 96 Russian news portals, Telegram and YouTube channels”
The ledger keeps growing. Russia's envoy Mikhail Yevdokimov was summoned on August 18 over three named broadcasts. Baku's wanted list has reached into a Moscow ministry, and one name on it, Aleksey Chadayev, left his ministry post within days of appearing there. Moscow, asked, answers with distance.
No reply to the assessment-and-measures ask had surfaced in the wires by Thursday midday. The demand now sits in Moscow's queue, in the ambassador's own words.