Sergey Markov, a Kremlin loyalist, United Russia member, and regular Russian TV talking head, was just labeled a foreign agent.
Here he is in Baku, calling Aliyev a "brilliant leader" who "won the war"
Might seem small, but I think this is a GIANT shift in Russian politics: 🧵
Russia is CRAWLING with Azeri political lobbyists. I've talked about this on our podcast many times. Aliyev's little helpers had access everywhere for years.
Markov was one of the most obvious offenders, parroting Baku's line while presenting himself as a Putin loyalist at home.
At the height of recent Russia–Azerbaijan tensions, Azeri police arrested and tortured random Russian IT guys and journos taken from the street
And while that was happening, Markov was in Baku, groveling at Aliyev's feet, praising him as the victorious genius (see first post)
Like, imagine a US gov-linked pundit in 1979 flying to Tehran to flatter Khomeini while Americans were still hostages. That's the level of absurdity Russian politics ran on!
Whoring yourself out to whoever paid, while pretending to be loyal.
Markov even freelanced to Bloomberg about Russia being "ready for air ceasefire", quoted in the US as a trusted Kremlin source.
Nobody cared, because that was NORMAL. The entire system was performative loyalty on the surface, side gigs for foreign clients underneath.
Not anymore. Being labeled a foreign agent isn't exactly Stalin's "enemy of the people", but it guts your finances, your reach, and your status.
And this is someone close to Peskov and Kirienko. He used to be UNTOUCHABLE.
The message is quite clear: the Kremlin is CLEANING HOUSE. The Azeri lobby is being burned out.
Does that mean a real BREAK with Baku (and by extension, Ankara and another Azeri ally Tel-Aviv)? I think so.
The strikes on Ukrainian refineries w/ Azeri oil weren't random at all.
And most important:
There's NO LONGER a protected political class in Russia. Even the loudest Putinist can get screwed if he doesn't understand that the times have changed.
Fake loyalists aren't safe anymore, and the Azerbaijan lobby is, hopefully, being taken out for good.
Provided that he takes in foreign-state money, that is. Which, obviously, was the case with poor little Markov.
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