Azerbaijan's National Broadcasting Council announced late last year that it would cut off broadcasts by Russia's state-run Channel One and Rossiya (RTR) networks, as well as by some of Turkey's channels, because neither country transmits Azerbaijani TV programs.
The announcement came shortly after Baku said it would stop importing natural gas from Russia following Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom's move to more than double the price of its gas supplies to the post-Soviet neighbor.
Ambassador Vasily Istratov said Moscow was not considering any retaliatory measures.
"It is Azerbaijan's sovereign right to decide who broadcasts [to its territory] and on what terms, and on our part, there will be no abrupt moves - political, non-political or otherwise."
Istratov said some new arrangement could be made with Azerbaijan before the July deadline - for instance, one providing for "reciprocal transmission of channels on Russian and Azerbaijani television, or else commercial transmission of some of the Russian channels' content."
The head of the Azerbaijani National Broadcasting Council, Nusirevan Maharamli, indicated earlier that the decision could be reversed if Russia allowed Azerbaijan's AzTV to be broadcast to areas with large Azeri communities.
He also denied any connection with the gas pricing row, saying the decision to pull Russian broadcasts off the air was not politically motivated.
