Ambassador of Azerbaijan was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry-due to detentions in the office "Sputnik-Azerbaijan"

The Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Moscow Rakhman Mustafaev was called to the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova.

“In connection with the unfriendly actions of Baku and the illegal detention of Russian journalists, to whom the Azerbaijan authorities have no complaints, the Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan has not been called to the Foreign Ministry,” she told reporters (quote for Interfax).

On the afternoon of June 30,it became known that a police operation was held in Baku in the office of the Russian news agency Sputnik-Azerbaijan. Local media claimed that two FSB officers of Russia were detained during the searches. Journalists published detention personnel.

The Sputnik agency itself, which is part of the Russian propaganda media group today, reported that the head of the editorial office of Sputnik-Azerbaijan Igor Kartovy and chief editor Yevgeny Belousov were detained in Baku. The accusations are that the detainees are allegedly FSB agents, the Sputnik editors were called absurd.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan reported that they are conducting an investigation into illegal financing and continuation of the Sputnik-Azerbaijan, despite the termination of the agency’s accreditation in February 2025.

• Searches in the Sputnik-Azerbaijan office were held against the backdrop of exacerbation of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan that arose after representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg massively detained due to murders committed in the early 2000s.