When President Ilham Aliyev sat down with Al-Arabiya and described the Soviet Union’s entry into Azerbaijan not as liberation but as occupation, the remark struck a raw nerve in Moscow. The reaction was swift. Russian state media erupted with outrage, and Kremlin-aligned commentators like Vladimir Solovyov hurled criticism and threats at Baku. Yet the fury betrayed something deeper: Aliyev had punctured one of Russia’s most enduring myths.