Baku accuses RIA Novosti of «replicating» Karabakh's statements

View of Agdam city. Archival photoBAKU, June 3 In response to RIA Novosti's question about the reasons for blocking the ria.ru website by local authorities, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused the Russian news agency of «replicating» the statements of Nagorno-Karabakh due to the release of news from the correspondent's conversation with the NKR State Minister, despite the detailed presentation of Baku's position in the same materials. «The dissemination by the Russian state news agency of slanderous information that opposes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and promotes separatist tendencies does not correspond to the spirit of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and, thus, causes serious regret,» Leyla Abdullayeva, head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti. She expressed the opinion that this allegedly contradicts the provisions of the 1997 Agreement on Friendship, Security and Strategic Partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia and the Declaration on Allied Cooperation 2022. She accused the agency of «replicating these provocative statements». The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan did not cite separatism on the part of RIA Novosti. The materials with the statements of the representative of Nagorno-Karabakh in the materials of RIA Novosti were accompanied by a detailed presentation of the position of Azerbaijan.