The author of the program "Middle East" Nikita Smagin filed a lawsuit against the inclusion of his name in the list of foreign agents. The basis for this decision of the Ministry of Justice was the journalist's cooperation with the Azerbaijani channel CBC.

At the same time, the CBC channel is not listed among those recognized as foreign agents or undesirable organizations in Russia. In addition to cooperation with the Azerbaijani TV company, the Ministry of Justice drew attention to Smagin's activity on social networks, where he distributed publications and retweeted materials from the Meduza publication, the Carnegie Foundation and a number of other authors previously included in the register of foreign agents.

Earlier, it was reported that, according to information distributed by the insider public INSIDER BLACK, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered state media to begin a campaign to criticize the policies of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, which Moscow considers "anti-Russian".

In an interview with Al Arabiya recently, Ilham Aliyev drew a parallel between the current conflict in Ukraine and the Soviet Union’s annexation of Azerbaijan in 1920, calling both events “Russian invasion and occupation.”