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A political scientist’s ties to Azerbaijan's state-owned energy giant SOCAR sparked a testy exchange at a Columbia University discussion on European energy on October 23 when a student asked the scholar about her ties to the firm, reads the article published on the site of Radio Liberty.

According to the article Brenda Shaffer, a professor at Israel's University of Haifa, responded to a question about her failure to disclose her links to SOCAR by grilling her interlocutor -- journalist and Columbia graduate student Casey Michel – to which she replied that part of the American way is a right to privacy.

In early September, the American newspaper “The New York Times” published an article by Brenda Shaffer about the Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions, where, however, was no note about the author’s ties with the Government of Azerbaijan. Later “The New York Times” added to the article "Editor's Note", which states that the article did not disclose the fact that the author was an advisor to the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, despite the fact that Shaffer signed a contract according to which she was to report on the conflict of interest, real or potential.

According to the article, the exact role of Schaeffer at Columbia University event was also unclear. Under the previous version of the ad on the event, Shaffer was awarded as the "moderator". In the updated version, however, another name was announced as a moderator. During the event, she was introduced as "a panelist," but Shaffer quick fix her interlocutor. "Moderator", she said.
As given in the article, critics accuse Azerbaijan of Baku attempts to present the country as an energy partner, at the same time, western politicians and human rights activists register growth of repressions and worsening of human rights condition in Azerbaijan.