The First Deputy Head Of A Major Russian News Agency Was Fired After A Trip To Azerbaijan

President Ilham Aliyev spoke at the forum.

Mikhail Gusman has been relieved of the post of first deputy director general of the Russian news agency TASS. A corresponding decree signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Gusman was previously criticized by Z-propagandists for traveling to a forum where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was speaking.

Gusman worked at TASS for about 30 years. A few days before his dismissal, he attended the Shusha Global Media Forum in Azerbaijan. There, the first deputy head of TASS posed a question to the country's President Ilham Aliyev, noting that Baku has a "completely unique foreign policy."

"Your policy is based on certain, I think, very clear, very verified political principles," Gusman said, comparing Aliyev to a "virtuoso violinist."

Afterward, Gusman was criticized by Z-propagandists. They accused him of "Russophobia." "Komsomolskaya Pravda's "Military Correspondent" Alexander Kots said that Gusman "went to pay his respects to the president of Azerbaijan."

The large pro-war channel "Two Majors" on July 24 welcomed the news of Gusman's resignation and also linked it to his trip to Azerbaijan.

Reminder, relations between Russia and Azerbaijan escalated after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. According to Azerbaijan's version, the plane was shot down by Russian air defense, which resulted in the death of 38 people. In mid-July, it was reported that Azerbaijan was preparing to file a lawsuit against Moscow in an international court, as it still "has not received a single clear answer from the Russian side" about the investigation into the crash.

The crisis in relations between Baku and Moscow escalated after two Azerbaijani natives, Ziyaddin and Gusein Safarov, were killed during a raid by security forces in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on June 27, 2025. Eight others were later arrested.

Moscow insists the Russian police officers acted within the law. Baku disagreed and called for an investigation into the circumstances of the Safarovs' deaths. In addition, 13 Russian citizens were arrested in Azerbaijan and the editorial office of Sputnik Azerbaijan was searched.

According to analysts, Moscow's influence south of Russia's borders, especially in Armenia and Azerbaijan, is weakening significantly amid Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

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