Azerbaijan has detained seven individuals linked to Russia’s pro-Kremlin Sputnik media outlet, local media reported on Tuesday, citing the country’s Interior Ministry.
Police raided Sputnik Azerbaijan’s office on Monday, detaining the news outlet’s editor-in-chief Yevgeny Belousov, and editorial board director Igor Kartavykh on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud. If convicted, the two men might face a maximum prison sentence of up to 12 years. They also faced charges related to conspiracy for money laundering, illegal entrepreneurship. Both were arrested and ordered held for at least four months in pre-trial detention.
Five other staff members were also detained and under investigation on charges of fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and acquiring property by criminal means. The Interior Ministry said Sputnik Azerbaijan had been operating via “illegal financing,” despite having its accreditation revoked in February.
Sputnik’s parent company, Rossiya Segodnya, expressed “deep concern” over its staff member’ arrests in Baku, stating that diplomats from the Russian Consulate were denied access to them. It added that Kartavykh’s apartment was searched and his computer seized. “All these actions have no basis and have led to the blocking of Sputnik Azerbaijan. We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately resolve this unacceptable situation and release our colleagues,” the company said in a statement.
Kremlin also urged the release of the detained Russians. “Such measures against members of the media are absolutely not in line with generally accepted rules and norms and, of course, do not match the spirit and nature of Russian-Azerbaijani relations,” Kremlin’s Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
Detentions came amid the deepening of diplomatic rift between Baku and Moscow. Russian police on Friday killed two Azerbaijani brothers - 60-year-old Huseyn Safarov and 55-year-old Ziyaddin Safarov -
after raiding their house in Yekaterinburg city as part of an investigation into a number of killings dating back decades. Several people were injured and nine were detained in the raid. On Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office said it would initiate a criminal investigation into the killing of two Azerbaijanis who were “practically helpless and unable to defend themselves.” It attributed the deaths to “post-traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries.”
In response to the killings of ethnic Azerbaijanis, the Ministry of Culture called off all Russian cultural events organized by Russian state and private institutions. Furthermore, the government cancelled a scheduled trip to Moscow by government officials, due to Russian law-enforcers’ “targeted extrajudicial killings and violence against Azerbaijanis on the basis of their nationality”. Baku also postponed a visit to Baku by a Russian deputy prime minister.
The relations between Baku and Moscow have worsened since the crash of Azerbaijani passenger jet en route to Chechnya in December. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the plane had been accidentally shot by Russia and demanded an open apology from Moscow. Russian leader Vladimir Putin expressed apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident”, however stopped short of claiming responsibility.
