"Vesti FM" on friends of Russia

"Russian media, who are busy covering the international relations of Russia, should turn their attention to Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev, who has consistently advocated friendly positions to the Russian Federation today, at a time when the Russian point of view on events in the world has been criticized even by allied countries," the assistant professor of political theory at MGIMO, Kirill Koktysh, said during a broadcast of "Vesti FM", responding to a question about omissions in the master work of modern media. 

"It is a question for the editorial policy of our media, despite the fact that, of course, you need to pay attention to Ilham Aliyev. He taught for a long time at MGIMO, and has always showed, and I think he will continue to demonstrate, balance and depth of approach. So the fact that the presence of loyal states and their leaders is ignored is not very good, although I admit that the language which Ilham Aliyev speaks can be too complicated and multi-faceted for a number of media," Kirill Koktysh said. 

The host during the interview with a leading expert drew attention to the fact that the Russian media had ignored the speech the President of Azerbaijan made in Davos, although he gave very interesting answers to difficult questions on the deterioration of relations between Russia and Ukraine. 

"Ilham Aliyev was just very correct in his assessments and in general speech. It was impossible to hear it in our media, even though he took a very friendly position to Russia. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center published a survey about the friends and enemies of Russia immediately after that. There are of course Belarus and Kazakhstan, even Ukraine is friends. So, in this case the President of Azerbaijan in relation to the conflict in Ukraine was more gentle and loyal, rather than, for example, Lukashenko or Nazarbayev. Why do we not notice that there are leaders of other countries that exhibit loyalty towards Russia, and somehow did not emphasize it?" the host adressed such a question to Kirill Koktysh.