Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an order on July 24 to dismiss Mikhail Gusman, a top executive in the state-owned news agency TASS.
“Release Mikhail Solomonovich Gusman from the position of First Deputy General Director,” the text of the order stated, without explaining the basis for the dismissal.
Gusman, 75, a respected Russian Jewish journalist of Azerbaijani origin, had served in the post since 1999. He attended the recent 3rd Shusha Global Media Forum (after attending the previous two iterations) at the invitation of Azerbaijan, which also invited him and Ukrainian Jewish journalist Dmitry Gordon to pose a question to President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting with some 150 international journalists on July 19.
Praising the Azerbaijani leader, Gusman asked Aliyev how he had managed to pursue a “unique foreign policy” by maintaining ties with very divergent nations such as Russia and the United States. In 2020, Aliyev presented the Sharaf Order of Honor, Azerbaijan’s highest award, to Gusman.
Relations between Moscow and Baku have deteriorated significantly since Russia accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane on Dec. 25, 2024, killing 38 of the 67 passengers and crew on board. On July 1, eight Russians were arrested in Baku on suspicion of trafficking drugs from Iran.
