After the brutal killing of two Azerbaijanis by Russian security forces in Yekaterinburg, relations between Baku and Moscow have become tense. Amid this ongoing tension, the Russian media outlet Lenta.ru has been especially active in publishing provocative and hostile news and statements against Azerbaijan.

Axar.az reports that while some Russian media organizations try to publish "balanced" articles and avoid showing open bias against Azerbaijan, Lenta.ru has taken a more radical stance on this issue.

Interestingly, just three days after the Yekaterinburg incident, the editor-in-chief of Lenta.ru, Vladimir Todorov, stepped down. He was replaced by Andrey Tsiper. The reasons for Todorov’s departure are not yet known.

Since Tsiper took over leadership of Lenta.ru on July 1, there has been a sharp increase in the number, aggression, and volume of biased, defamatory, and provocative materials targeting Azerbaijan.

Vladimir Todorov, born on October 11, 1993, in Moscow, studied Oriental Studies at the Higher School of Economics. From 2014, he worked as a reporter in the Business and Finance department and later as technology editor at Gazeta.ru. He is considered the youngest editor-in-chief of a federal media outlet in Russia, having worked at Lenta.ru since 2016 and becoming head of the editorial team in 2017. Under his leadership, the outlet won awards such as the TEFI-Multimedia and Runet Prize. Since April 2024, Todorov has also worked as a producer of documentary content for the online cinema service Okko.

His successor, Andrey Tsiper, was born on January 21, 1982, in Moscow. He graduated from the Management Faculty of the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009, he served as commercial director at Izvestiya newspaper, and from 2009 to 2011, held vice president and development director positions at Emerging Communications agency. In 2011-2012, he led the Internet projects department at Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and in 2012-2013, he was CEO of Agentstvo 1.

It should be noted that Tsiper has been appointed as the temporary head of Lenta.ru. According to Russian media, the name of the new permanent editor-in-chief will be announced soon.