Azerbaijan Arrests 2 Sputnik Journalists After Office Raid As Tensions With Moscow Escalates
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Azerbaijan's interior ministry said it had launched an investigation into the outlet, Sputnik Azerbaijan, after raiding its offices earlier on Monday
News18
Azerbaijan's interior ministry on Monday arrested two journalists from Sputnik Azerbaijan following a raid on the agency's offices in Baku. The move comes amid escalating tensions with Moscow sparked by recent arrests of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia.
Azerbaijan's interior ministry said it launched an investigation into Sputnik Azerbaijan after authorities raided its local office. Video released by police shows two men—identified as the head of the editorial board and the chief editor—being led in handcuffs to police vans.
Officials in Baku say they are also investigating Sputnik Azerbaijan for allegedly receiving illegal funding. The outlet was officially closed in February under laws targeting foreign state-linked media, but it continued to operate with a smaller staff until today's arrests.
Russia's RIA state news agency confirmed the detentions, calling them part of an 'illegal detention" of Russian journalists in Azerbaijan. In response, Russia summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador to Moscow, denouncing Baku's actions as 'unfriendly" and 'illegal."
According to Russian authorities, two of those suspects died, one of them reportedly from heart failure. Their bodies are expected to be transported to Baku later on Monday for further examination.
Azerbaijani officials have accused Russian law enforcement of carrying out extrajudicial killings based on ethnicity—claims that have been firmly rejected by Moscow.
Diplomatic Fallout
In protest, Azerbaijan's parliament has withdrawn from planned bilateral talks in Moscow, and a visit by a Russian deputy prime minister has been cancelled.
The Azerbaijani culture ministry has also called off forthcoming cultural events involving Russian state and private organisations, citing concern over 'targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement agencies."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed regret over Baku's decisions, arguing that the Yekaterinburg arrests were a matter for Russian law enforcement and should not have prompted such actions.
'We believe that everything that's happening (in Yekaterinburg) is related to the work of law enforcement agencies, and this cannot and should not be a reason for such a reaction," Peskov told the media.
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Azerbaijan
First Published:
June 30, 2025, 23:59 IST
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