Local media said that the police raided the offices of Russia’s state-funded news agency Sputnik on Monday in Baku.
The swhpta came in the form of tension between Azerbaijan and Russia, which increased after the death of two ethnic Azerbaijans in a police raid in Yakaterinburg last week.
What do we know about raids on Sputnik?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan said that despite canceling its recognition in February 2025, Sputnik continued to work in the country through “illegal financing”.
Officials said arrests were made during the search, but did not give any further information. The images published by local outlets led two men to lead by masked officers.
According to Russia’s state-down Riya Novosti, Editor-in-Chief of Detailed Sputnik Azerbaijan, Yevgeni Belsov, and its director, Igor Kartavakh.
Russian officials condemned the movie as “Baku’s immortal work and illegal arrest of Russian journalists”.
Sputnik, a multilingual radio and news portal, is widely seen as a tool for spreading the Kremlin promotion abroad.
Why is Russia and Azerbaijan on obstacles?
The tension between Moscow and Baku has been boiling for months. At the end of 2024, the relationship deteriorated after the fall under an Azerbaijani passenger aircraft over Grozony, for the incident that Russian President Vladimir Putin forced Azerbaijan’s apology to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliva.
The latest provoking follows a wave of the arrest of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the Russian city of Yechinburg in the weekend. Russian authorities suspected about 50 people of being involved in contract killings between 2001 and 2011.
At least two people died during the arrest – one allegedly from heart failure. Baku explained the works as “unacceptable” and in response called the Russian ambassador.
The Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan on Sunday canceled all Russian cultural programs citing “systematic acts” by Russian security forces against Azerbaijanis.
Edited by: ZAC Crellin
