Svetlana Mironyuk, RIA Novosti's editor-in-chief, attended the opening Thursday of a RIA Novosti branch in Baku, and met Friday with President Ilkham Aliyev to point out its significance for relations between the two countries.
"In response to Aliyev's comment that Baku is in the process of building nine bridges, I said: You could say that you are building not nine but 10 bridges, because the virtual and electronic bridge that we have opened will not just be a one-way street, and we will be discussing Azerbaijan not just in Russia," Mironyuk said. "No, we are building this bridge to provide information about Azerbaijan in Russia, as well as in 12 different languages of the world."
Mironyuk told President Aliyev that the agency's branch is the first such project for RIA Novosti.
"The project enables us to exchange the experiences of journalists from the two countries, which will bring our countries still closer," she said. "Although we have common borders, our capitals are far apart - a three-hour flight - but using our bridge, the distance between them becomes much shorter."
Aliyev said that the opening of RIA Novosti's branch is a very important event that will allow Russians to learn more about their neighbors in Azerbaijan.
"We know a lot about Russia here, but [people] in Russia know far less about Azerbaijan, and sometimes media reports are misinterpreted," Aliyev said.
