Latest news with #Russian-Azerbaijani
Novaya Gazeta Europe
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Russians in Azerbaijan subjected to migration raids as tensions escalate — Novaya Gazeta Europe
In Azerbaijan, security forces have begun forcibly checking the documentation of Russian citizens residing in the country, conducting raids at their places of residence to do so, according to reports from Russia's diplomatic mission and the Ark project, an initiative designed to help Russians who emigrated due to their anti-war stance. On Wednesday, the Russian Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, announced that it had heard from a 'multitude' of Russians residing in the country, including tourists, that law enforcement officers had approached them at their places of residence, seeking to determine the purposes of their stays, checking their documents, and, in some cases, using force against them and their family members. 'We ask Russian citizens in Azerbaijan to report all such cases by emergency telephone,' the embassy said in a statement. For its part, the Ark project reported on Wednesday that Azerbaijani police officers had been conducting night raids on residential buildings where Russians reside, in some cases using force to interrogate them about the legality of their stay. The Ark project also reported that Russian citizens had been summoned to migration offices at late hours, without being given the opportunity to postpone their appointments, in order to allow law enforcement officers to identify visa violations. It also stated it would provide emergency legal assistance to Russian citizens facing such circumstances. In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Russians should 'carefully consider the current situation' before visiting Azerbaijan, and noted that authorities in Baku had not granted consular access to Russians arrested in recent days, according to state-owned news agency TASS. However, seeking to downplay the deterioration in Russian-Azerbaijani relations, Zakharova also stated on Wednesday that Moscow and Baku continue to have a 'strategic alliance', and accused outside 'forces' of seeking to disrupt the two countries' bilateral relations, TASS reported. Tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan have rapidly escalated in recent days since two Azerbaijani citizens died under unclear circumstances, and over 50 were arrested during a police raid in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Saturday. Since then, law enforcement authorities in Azerbaijan and Russia have engaged in tit-for-tat arrests in a series of high-profile raids, including at the offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-backed news agency. On Tuesday, Azerbaijani media outlet Minval published a leaked note allegedly written by Russian military captain Dmitry Paladichuk, in which he takes responsibility for transmitting the final order to shoot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, a passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan last December, killing 38 people. Although Vladimir Putin issued an apology for the incident, his refusal to acknowledge Russian responsibility triggered a diplomatic fallout at the time.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Azerbaijan accuses Russia of massive cyberattack
Ramid Namazov, chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament's commission on countering hybrid threats, claims that Russia was behind the February 2025 cyberattack on the country. Source: Namazov's words at a public hearing on 2 May were quoted by Azerbaijan's state news agency APA, as reported by European Pravda Details: Namazov said that the investigation found that the 20 February cyberattack against Azerbaijani media was carried out by the APT29 group, also known as Cozy Bear, which is linked to Russian military intelligence. "The activities of APT29, which is engaged in cyber espionage, are mainly directed against government agencies, foreign diplomatic missions, as well as the sectors of politics, defence, energy, media and other critical areas," the MP listed. He said that the attackers had penetrated the networks of Azerbaijani media systems in advance. The MP claims that the cyberattack was triggered by the decision of the Azerbaijani authorities on 3 February to close the Russian House in Baku due to violations of the law, as well as a possible closure of the Azerbaijani branch of Sputnik radio. "It is because of these processes that this politically motivated incident of cyber interference has occurred," Namazov said. Background: It should be noted that the tensions in Russian-Azerbaijani relations back then coincided with the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight in December 2024 near Grozny. Azerbaijan, according to media reports, has evidence that the plane that crashed in December after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan was shot down by the Russian Pantsir-S air defence system. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
