MOSCOW (Realist English). Russia’s special military operation to protect the civilian population of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics from genocide has really proved in practice how important the information front is to convey the word of truth and protect Russian national interests. A particularly important point in the information war is the participation of specialists in it — well-known historians, political scientists, public figures, as well as representatives of leading news agencies and the media.
In this article, I decided to focus on the personality of one of them, the first deputy general director of Russia’s largest news agency, TASS, Mikhail Gusman.
Analyzing Guzman’s activities as a journalist and analyst, I have not found anywhere public statements or personal support for the Armed Forces of Russia, nowhere is there any mention of his personal contribution or providing material assistance to Russian servicemen or refugees from the DPR and LPR, or his expressed civic position. I have not found any mention of Guzman’s trip not only to the SMO zone, but even to the Russian regions where large numbers of refugees are concentrated and where, by the way, other media leaders constantly travel.
Some may ask me why I am even raising this issue at all.
I explain. A native of Baku, Mikhail Solomonovich Gusman, one of the top managers of TASS, has made so many statements in favor of a foreign state — Azerbaijan — that sometimes you can’t understand which media he represents — Russia’s or Azerbaijan’s. He devotes most of his activities to promoting the interests of Azerbaijan.
During the triple aggression of Azerbaijan, Turkey and international terrorism against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in the fall of 2020, he spent several months in Azerbaijan and publicly advocated for the victory of the Azerbaijani army.
At that time, this Russian state official, according to media reports, contributed $50,000 to the Azerbaijani army support fund.
The Azerbaijani media and newspapers glorified this act of Guzman to the heavens in an oriental way, calling him a true patriot of Azerbaijan.
But a patriot of Azerbaijan and at the same time a Russian civil servant (TASS is a Russian state federal news agency), spends most of his work in Azerbaijan.
Here are some more examples. I was unpleasantly puzzled when in July 2020, during the days of the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, TASS published the Azerbaijani version of events, where Armenians were called enemies. These articles were actually reprints from the official Azerbaijani media. It turned out that through the state agency TASS, funded from the state budget of Russia, the official Baku fully disseminated its disinformation, misleading the Russian reader. These facts greatly concerned numerous Russian citizens of Armenian origin at that time. There were appeals to the leadership of TASS, left, unfortunately, and in violation of the law, without a response.
I do not rule out that with the beginning of the armed aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2020, with the assistance of some interested top managers of certain Russian media, among whom one can count Guzman, information messages were launched – setups that equated the aggressor and the victim — Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. With the help of such lawlessness and disrespect for the reader, the real culprits of the tragedy that claimed tens of thousands of innocent lives, on both sides of the conflict, were covered up. For example, instead of the wording “armed aggression”, which would accurately express the reality of those days, many Russian media used the false cliche “the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated”, creating the distorted public opinion needed by some.
It is interesting what kind of resonance there would be in Russia if Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008 was indicated as “an aggravation of the conflict with Georgia in South Ossetia” or the current aggression of the Ukraine against the DPR and LPR would be called “an aggravation of the conflict with Ukraine in the Donbass”.
A few days ago, the so-called “international media forum dedicated to the Media Day in Azerbaijan” was held in the ancient Armenian city of Shushi of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), occupied by Azerbaijan, which gave Soviet heroes and Armenians known to the world, where the exiled Armenian population of the city was not mentioned in a word. Among the honored guests, of course, was the traditional participant of the Baku VIP events, First Deputy Director General of TASS Mikhail Gusman.
Apparently, the Russian official, receiving a decent salary from the state budget of Russia, does not know about the primary tasks and priorities of the information front of Russia set by the President of the country. Speaking recently at a meeting of the Security Council, Vladimir Putin said that after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, the situation has worsened: a “war in the information space” has been unleashed against Russia, the essence of which lies in the fact that the main priority areas are information support for the DPR, the LPR, the Armed Forces of Russia and tasks related to the SMO. But for Guzman, they have become not only not primary issues, not even secondary, but third-rate. He actually ignored the tasks set by the head of state. As he used to travel to Baku, so he continues to. For him, there is only one information front — this is Azerbaijan, period! I wonder, if we hypothetically assume a conflict between Azerbaijan and Russia, which side would such citizens take?
I am concerned that an official of such a high rank, who probably has access to state-important official information important for state security and public interethnic peace, can so freely publicly express his sympathy for a foreign state.
Why have I decided to emphasize this fact? On July 22, during a trip to the city of Shushi, Guzman allowed himself several undiplomatic and biased statements that could not only discredit him, but, what is especially important for Russians, the federal agency TASS.
Talking to journalists, Guzman said that “Shushi and Karabakh are the primordial Azerbaijani territory today and forever,” at a time when there is not a single interstate document signed by anyone establishing such a legal standing of the city of Shushi. Also, this propagandist said: “Not everyone has understood the justice of the war. Everyone should understand that Karabakh is an Azerbaijani land. In my opinion, everyone who is interested in history, everyone who respects international law understands this.”
The legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh has not yet been determined. Everything is still ahead, Mr. Guzman. Wouldn’t you know that?
And, probably, in order to please his Azerbaijani aficionado et al., he pathetically proposed to hold a World media Forum in Shushi dedicated to the “150th anniversary of the Azerbaijani press”. Well, why not the “New Vasyuki” of the immortal Ostap Ibrahimovich? It is sad that a high-ranking TASS official does not know the history.
I am prepared to give a brief program of elimination of historical illiteracy to those who, instead of conveying to the reader at least a neutral position, spread deliberately false information with their statements both further aggravate and complicate the already complicated process of a political, peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
As for the first part of Guzman’s statements, I remind you, as a historian, that Shushi is a primordially Armenian city.
Many famous figures of Armenian and world culture came from this city. The natives of Shushi were such outstanding Armenians as:
- The legendary military commander, Lieutenant General of the Russian army Ivan Davidovich Lazarev (1820-1879), who conquered Kars for Russia.
- One of the founders of the Soviet military-industrial complex, Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor Hovhannes Tevosyan (1902-1958).
- The egendary Soviet attack pilot Nelson Stepanyan (1913-1944), the only two times Hero of the Soviet Union in Transcaucasia who received these stars during the war.
- The remarkable portrait painter Stepan Aghajanyan (1863-1940).
- The world–famous sculptor (“Armenian Erzya”), a disciple of Rodin, Hakob Gurdjian (1881-1948).
- Brothers Pavel (1858-1937) and Abram Gukasovs (1872-1969), Russian oil industrialists from Shushi.
- The classic of Armenian literature, author of historical novels, short stories and plays, Muratsan (Grigor Ter-Hovhannisyan) (1854-1908).
- Major-General Mikhail Allakhverdov (1900-1968), a prominent figure of the state security bodies of the USSR.
- The creator of dictionaries of the Russian language, a Soviet linguist, one of the founders of the Moscow Phonological school, Professor of Moscow State University, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Ruben Avanesov (1902-1982).
- The legendary Soviet intelligence officer Ruben Agamalov (1905-1982).
- The famous primitive artist Edmond Petrosyan (1948-2019).
- The world-famous composer Mikael Tariverdiyev (1931-1996) had Shushi roots. His father, Leon Tariverdyan, was born in Shushi. Mikael Tariverdiev is a People’s Artist of the RSFSR. The compositions for the films “The Seventeen Moments of Spring”, “Irony of Fate, or With a light steam”, “The Deer King”, “To Love” brought him the greatest fame.
- Alexander Shamilevich Melik-Pashayev (1905-1964), the chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater (in 1953-1962), People’s Artist of the USSR, also had Shushi roots.
This list can be continued for a long time.
For comparison, we can add that the city of Shushi gave only two famous cultural figures of Azerbaijan.
- The famous composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885 – 1948).
- The famous Azerbaijani opera singer Murtuza Meshadi Rza oglu Mammadov (1897-1961).
On the second part. About Guzman’s proposal to hold a world media forum in Shushi dedicated to the “150th anniversary of the Azerbaijani press”.
Especially for Mr. Guzman. 150 years ago there was neither an Azerbaijani nation nor a state. For the first time, the Republic of Azerbaijan appeared only in 1918, and such a nationality as “Azerbaijani”, at the suggestion of Joseph Stalin, was introduced into circulation only in 1937. 150 years ago, the inhabitants of modern Azerbaijan were called Caucasian Tatars, then Transcaucasian Turks. According to the modern, newest version, they consider themselves descendants of the Albanians who disappeared in the Middle Ages. How much can you bully readers and the history?
And the most important thing. From 1874 to March 1920, 28 newspapers and magazines were published in Shushi, of which 25 were Armenian, 3 were Russian. Such as: “Shushi Leaflet”, “Shushi Life”, “Armenian World”, “Ethnographic Journal”, “Crane” and other periodicals, i.e. Shushi was a traditional major regional center of Armenian culture and information resources.
It should be noted that not a single newspaper in the Turkic language was published in Shushi until 1921.
So Guzman’s proposal to hold the World Media Forum “The 150th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Press” in Shushi sounds not just like nonsense, but also as a mockery, first of all, of the Azerbaijanis themselves.
On the basis of the above, It would be more logical if Guzman proposed to hold the event “150th anniversary of the Armenian press of Shushi” in Shushi. And it will be fair from the point of view of historical truth and historical justice.
And something else. On November 8, 2021, in Moscow, in the elite banquet hall of the European Shopping Center on the Kievsky Railway Station Square (the owner of this complex is a billionaire, and concurrently the main sponsor of anti-Armenian events in Russia, a native of Azerbaijan, God Nisanov, who, according to media reports, recently applied for Portuguese citizenship), the Azerbaijani Embassy organized a grand reception on the occasion of the first anniversary of the “victory” in the “Patriotic War of the Azerbaijani people”. Many foreign ambassadors, representatives of the Azerbaijani lobby and others were invited to the celebration. Among them was also my hero, Mikhail Solomonovich. This sabantuy was organized on a day of mourning for Russia, on the anniversary when, on November 8, 2020, when the Russian peacekeeping forces were deployed to suspend the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a Russian military helicopter was viciously shot down over the territory of Armenia by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, resulting in the death of military pilots Major Y.V. Ishchuk and Senior Lieutenant R.V. Fedina.
Many Russian public figures and journalists, having learned about this cynical event, came out with harsh criticism of the Azerbaijani Ambassador of the Russian Federation and billionaire God Nisanov for such disrespectful attitude towards Russia and the memory of her fallen pilots…
In fact, in the person of Mikhail Gusman, Azerbaijan, willy-nilly, began to dominate the information field of Russia, to pursue its information policy.
Being a professional journalist and analyzing many facts of the media sphere, I can assume that in the future, the problems in the field of information management will further worsen and threaten the national security of Russia not only in terms of foreign policy, but also the domestic one.
Having conducted an elementary unbiased analysis of the above facts and the activities of the First Deputy Director General of TASS, any analyst and expert of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation could easily give a conclusion whether the actions of a citizen of the Russian Federation, a high-ranking federal civil servant Mikhail Solomonovich Gusman contain signs of the activities of a foreign agent, or not?
In conclusion, I would like to personally address Mikhail Gusman: “Mr. Guzman, would you dare to allocate 50 thousand dollars to support the Russian army, or a couple of trucks of humanitarian aid for refugees from the DPR and LPR? It is possible for beloved Azerbaijan, it is your homeland. But not for Russia — she’s just a feeder…”.
Aram Khachatryan is a public figure, military journalist, lieutenant colonel of the Reserve of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, member of the Union of Journalists of Moscow, Special to Realist English
