Latest news with #RussiaAzerbaijan
Russia Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia names its priority in relations with Azerbaijan amid rift
Maintaining friendly bilateral relations is important for both Russia and Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has insisted, commenting on the current flare-up between Moscow and Baku. On Tuesday, a court in Baku ordered the four-month pre-trial detention of two Russian journalists who hold senior positions in Sputnik Azerbaijan news agency. The country's authorities claim the outlet has been operating 'through illegal financing,' with Sputnik dismissing the allegations as 'absurd.' Moscow has accused Baku of 'hostile actions and unlawful detention of Russian journalists.' The arrests followed a police raid last week on an alleged ethnic organized crime group in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, composed of Russian nationals of Azerbaijani origin. Two elderly suspects died during the operation, with the preliminary assessment indicating that at least one of them suffered heart failure. The incident sparked outrage among Azerbaijani politicians, who accused Moscow of targeting people based on ethnicity. Speaking to Sputnik Radio on Wednesday, Zakharova said that the reaction to the rift in both Russia and Azerbaijan is 'acute' because the two countries have been 'building such relations… for many years, which are based on taking mutual interests into account and respect.' According to the spokeswoman, the ties between the peoples of the countries, which used to be part of the Soviet Union, are also very close. 'There are families and history, there is… mutual enrichment of cultures, and there are business connections in different areas,' she explained. 'For the two peoples, friendly relations are of paramount importance. And those who are looking to spoil them should think carefully about what they are doing,' Zakharova said without elaborating. There are those who want 'to simply make money' by creating tensions between Moscow and Baku, she added, warning that they may well end up 'getting burned.' The spokeswoman also said that it was 'extremely important' that the Russian Investigative Committee immediately ordered a probe into the deaths of suspects during the police raid in Yekaterinburg. The authorities in Baku should 'take this into account,' she insisted.
Arab News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Russia says certain forces are out to wreck ties between it and Azerbaijan, RIA reports
MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that certain forces were trying to wreck Moscow's ties with Azerbaijan and that they should think hard about what they were doing, the state RIA news agency reported. The statement came amid rising tensions between the two countries after two Russian state journalists were arrested in Baku and a further around 15 more Russians arrested separately on suspicion of drug trafficking and cybercrime. The arrests followed Russian police raids against ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Russia suspected of involvement in serious crimes in which two men died. RIA cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying it regarded its relationship with Baku as extremely important and that it believed the arrest of the Russian journalists was not connected to their work but motivated by other considerations. The pair have since been charged with fraud and other crimes by a Baku court.
LBCI
6 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Russia summons Azerbaijan envoy over journalist detentions, RIA reports
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador to Moscow over what it described as Baku's "unfriendly actions" and the "illegal detention" of Russian journalists working in the country. Tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan rose earlier on Monday after the Kremlin said it disagreed with a decision by Azerbaijan to cancel Russian cultural events in response to the arrest in Russia of a group of ethnic Azerbaijanis suspected of serious crimes. Reuters
