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Earlier this month, the American newspaper "The New York Times" published an article written by professor of political science at the University of Haifa Israeli Brands Shaffer about the Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions. There, however, was no note about the ties of the author with the government of Azerbaijan, reads the article published on Radio Liberty site.

“What the author's tagline did not reveal is that Shaffer has worked as an adviser "for strategic affairs" to Rovnag Abdullayev, president of Azerbaijan's state-owned SOCAR energy giant,” the article notes.

According to the article SOCAR and Azerbaijan have been lobbying Washington and the European Union to regard Baku as an energy partner while downplaying or ignoring the country's authoritarian government and dismal human rights record.

As the author notes that when shown a photograph of Shaffer's SOCAR business card, "The New York Times" responded on September 17 by attaching an "editor's note" to Shaffer's op-ed saying the piece "did not disclose that the writer has been an adviser to Azerbaijan's state-run oil company," even though Shaffer "signed a contract obliging her to disclose conflicts of interest, actual or potential."

The article reads that Shaffer did not respond to numerous requests to comment for this report. SOCAR spokesman Nizameddin Guliyev, however, told RFE/RL that Shaffer had not worked for SOCAR. Nonetheless, it is evident Shaffer has presented herself as Abdullayev's adviser since at least as early as 2013.

According to the article in other cases, however, Shaffer does not mention her work for SOCAR. Shaffer has used other media appearances as well to tout Azerbaijan as a partner to the West and a potential crucial player in European energy security while not disclosing ties to SOCAR.

In one of her interviews in an October 2013 article by the Azerbaijani Contact news agency about U.S. criticism of Azerbaijan's October 9 presidential election, Shaffer was quoted as saying that "Azerbaijan is frequently criticized, but other countries have real problems." She was also quoted as saying that the people of Azerbaijan trust Aliyev because he has brought "peace, stability, and economic development."

Rebecca Vincent, a former U.S. diplomat in Baku and an independent human rights activist, told RFE/RL in an e-mail that "Azerbaijani officials seem to be using [the Ukraine crisis] and other regional events to deflect attention from the ongoing human rights crackdown in the country, which is now worse than perhaps ever before."