Azerbaijan blames Russia for media cyberattack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Baku has accused Moscow of organizing a cyberattack against Azerbaijani media outlets on February 20. The allegation was made by Ramid Namazov, head of the parliamentary commission on combating foreign interference.

According to Namazov, the attack was carried out by the Russian hacker group APT29 and executed at a high technical level. He stated that such actions contradict the declaration of allied interaction between Azerbaijan and Russia, Minval.az reports.

Namazov suggested that the possible motive for the cyberattack could be Azerbaijan’s February decision to suspend the activities of the “Russian House” in Baku and shut down the representation of the Russia Today media group (Sputnik Azerbaijan), following a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These measures have reportedly strained bilateral relations.

He also noted that Azerbaijani security services have already initiated discussions with their Russian counterparts on the matter.

Rasim Musabekov, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament, emphasized that cyberattacks are comparable to military aggression and urged that the incident be addressed at the diplomatic level.

The February 20 cyberattack affected several news sites belonging to the Global Media Group. Azerbaijan’s Media Development Agency reported attempts to breach site servers and control panels, as well as unauthorized image postings on homepages. The Russian government has yet to comment on Baku's accusations.