Another Russian journalist detained in Azerbaijan
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Russia Today
an hour ago
- Russia Today
Russia should abolish diaspora groups
Ethnic diaspora groups should be banned in Russia, Marina Akhmedova, a member of the presidential human rights сouncil, has said amid a flare-up with neighboring Azerbaijan. Tensions between Moscow and Baku spiked after police raids last week on an alleged organized crime group in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The group is composed of Russian nationals of Azerbaijani origin and is accused of a string of gang assassinations and contract killings dating back to the early 2000s. Two elderly male suspects died during the police operation, with the preliminary assessment indicating that at least one of them suffered heart failure. The incident sparked outrage in Baku, which accused Moscow of deliberately targeting people of Azerbaijani descent and claimed that the two men had been murdered while in custody. On Tuesday, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ekaterinburg, Shakhin Shikhlinski, was detained in relation to the case but was swiftly released after questioning, according to his son. Akhmedova reacted to the development in a post on Telegram on Wednesday, saying 'it is time to abolish diasporas' in Russia. 'These are illegal entities. No government agency should have anything to do with them,' she wrote. All such ethnic groups must be prohibited, not only among the Azerbaijani diaspora, the human rights expert insisted. According to the results of a 2002 census, more than 621,040 people of Azerbaijani descent are currently living in Russia. On Monday, Azerbaijani police raided the offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, with a court in Baku ordering a four-month pre-trial detention of two Russian journalists who hold senior positions in the news agency. The Azerbaijani authorities claimed that the outlet has been operating 'through illegal financing' – allegations which Sputnik has dismissed as 'absurd.' Baku has also arrested eight other Russian nationals, accusing them of being members of a group involved in cybercrime and the trafficking of drugs from Iran. Russian media, however, have identified two of the suspects as IT specialists, while describing another one as a tourist. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Wednesday that the Azerbaijani authorities have not yet provided Moscow's consular staff with access to the detained Russians. She advised Russian citizens who are planning trips to Azerbaijan to 'take the current situation into account.' Zakharova also noted that there is a 'strategic partnership' between Moscow and Baku, urging Azerbaijan to take steps aimed at returning bilateral ties to the proper level.
Russia Today
2 hours ago
- Russia Today
Kiev strips citizenship from head of largest Christian church
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has revoked the citizenship of the seniormost bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the SBU security agency reported on Wednesday. According to the agency, it has evidence that 80-year-old Metropolitan Onufry obtained Russian citizenship in 2002, and thus was no longer eligible to hold Ukrainian citizenship. Zelensky has reportedly ordered the church leader to no longer be considered a Ukrainian national, although his office has yet to publish the decree. Zelensky's government has been cracking down on the largest religious organization in Ukraine for years, claiming the measures are necessary due to the UOC's historic ties with Russia. The broad campaign of criminal investigations against the clergy has been accompanied by the seizure of property by supporters of the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is backed by Kiev. The UOC says it is being victimized by the government. The SBU alleged that Onufry 'deliberately opposed canonical independence of the Ukrainian church from the Moscow Patriarchy,' referring to the spiritual connection between the two churches originating from the times of Imperial Russia. The creation of the rival OCU in 2019 and its recognition by the Patriarch of Constantinople caused a major rift among world's Orthodox churches. The UOC has been de facto independent from Moscow since the 1990s, but maintained the canonical connection that lent it inter-church legitimacy. Last year, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law that effectively threatened a ban on the UOC unless it cut the spiritual link to Russia. The UN and international human rights organizations have accused Kiev of overreach and interference with the freedom of religion by mandating a specific way of worshiping God. DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Russia Today
4 hours ago
- 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.
