The Armenian lobby in Russia has decided that the best defense is to attack, supporting the occupying regime in Nagorno-Karabakh in the mass media this week. If on Saturday and Sunday the main battles were on the frontline (and ended with the liberation of occupied territories by the Azerbaijani army), during the working week the debates moved to television and the internet. It turned out that the Russian information field was occupied by Yerevan no less than it occupies the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region and the seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan.
Over the past three days the key and the most rated Russian mass media covered the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and there was no place for the fair position of Azerbaijan, supported by the international community, and by Russia itself. Neither citizens of Azerbaijan, nor representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora, nor objective people who could tell about the Karabakh war, the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, expulsion and destruction of Azerbaijanis, the regular failure of peace talks and other crimes and misdemeanors of official Yerevan, which is headed by the military leader of the Karabakh separatists, were invited on to these shows.
But all the best and only the best forces of the Armenian diaspora and their supporters were used for the campaign supporting the occupying regime in mass media. Yerevan was comprehensive protected not only by "experts", the Armenian leadership (formally citizens of Russia) stuck to this viewpoint, but also presenters supported the position on the promotion of the national interests of the Republic of Armenia.
Certainly, the first task was to hide the fact that it is in the national interest of the Republic of Armenia to retain the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for an indefinitely long time. This contradicts the national interests of the Russian Federation.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that these materials cannot be described as journalistic work. "It can be used solely for the purpose of incitement to hatred of people toward each other. It is not even an expansion of the conflict, but an incitement of hatred. We have engaged in the convergence of positions of the parties at all possible levels and called on a new level of understanding and such "reports" are not allowed. We need to understand all the responsibility in this moment,'' the diplomat urged, adding that journalists should be above the war, especially when the situation is as fragile as in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
A similar point of view was expressed by the member of the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, Maksim Shevchenko in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, in which he stated that such unilateral coverage in the media "poses a serious threat to civil society, human rights, peace and safety in the Russian Federation."
Vestnik Kavkaza supports Maria Zakharova's and Maksim Shevchenko's calls to remain above the war and hopes for a ''triumph of the mind'' in the Russian media.
