Russian media attacked Azerbaijan’s capital as tensions between Moscow and Baku
Azerbaijan Baku (AP) – Police in the Azerbaijan capital Baku on Monday searched the offices of the outbreak of Russian state-funded news media.
Media media said Azerbaijan’s interior ministry said it was investigating the claims that Sputnik Azerbaijan continued to work despite revoking its permit in February 2025.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of broadcaster RT and editor of state-funded media group Rossiya Segodnya, said Russian diplomatic representatives in Baku went to the Office of the Artificial Guard to investigate.
Simonyan posted: “After local media conducted ‘special security operations’ with employees, including Russian citizens, we were unable to contact the staff of the Azerbaijan Bureau by phone.
Official protests in Baku follow Russian police attacked official protests in Baku in the Ural mountain city of Yekaterinburg on Friday.
Officials said two brothers of Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov were killed and several other brothers were seriously injured in the raid.
Sayfaddin Huseynli, brother of two dead Azerbaijanis, told the Associated Press that the raid was “an inhumane, cruel act of Russia’s immigrants, a kind of act of intimidation.”
One of them is a Russian citizen and the other has both Russian and Azerbaijani citizenship, Hosenli said. Their bodies were sent back to Azerbaijan on Monday.
He earlier told Azerbaijan public broadcaster ITV that the men were beaten and had “no trial or investigation” and were electrocuted.
“The so-called Russian law enforcement agencies broke into houses late at night, defeated and took people away like animals,” he told the broadcaster.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said it is expected to investigate the matter and all perpetrators of all violence will be brought to justice as soon as possible. ”
Russia’s investigation committee said on Monday that one of the deaths came from heart failure. It provided no details about the second victim, but said medical examinations will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death for the two.
It also said the raid was part of an investigation into several murders spanning twenty years.
Officials in Baku responded to the cancellation of Azerbaijani officials’ scheduled trip to Moscow and were cited by Russian law enforcement “targeted extrajudicial killings and violence against Azerbaijanis”. It also canceled the planned visit of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister to Baku, and the Ministry of Culture canceled concerts, exhibitions, festivals and performances in Russian states and private institutions.
Moscow kept silent responses to Azerbaijan’s behavior. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that he “heartfelt regret” Baku’s decision to cancel the incident.
He also said Moscow would continue to “explain the causes and nature of the Yekaterinburg raid”.
“Everything that happens is related to the work of law enforcement agencies, and that cannot and should not be the cause of this reaction. We are interested in further developing good relations with Azerbaijan,” he said.
Relations between Moscow and Baku have been tense for months. Azerbaijani officials said that on December 25, 2024, the regional capital of Azerbaijani officials approached Grozny, and Azerbaijani passenger plane was hit by a ground fire. It moved to nearby Kazakhstan, crashed while trying to land, killing 38 of 38 out of 67 people.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said it was shot down by Russia by accident, but electronic warfare measures were out of control due to accusation of Russian air defense systems trying to withstand Ukrainian drone strikes near Grozny.
Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “quiet” what happened for several days. Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev, who called it a “tragic incident” but did not acknowledge the responsibility.
In May, Aliyev refused to participate in Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Later that month, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visited Azerbaijan, indicating a closer connection between Baku and Kiev.
