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New York Times
6 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Russia-Azerbaijan Tensions Soar, Threatening Moscow's Influence
Tensions rose sharply between Russia and the neighboring republic of Azerbaijan over the past week after two brothers, both ethnic Azerbaijanis, died in Russian custody, exposing a diplomatic crisis that threatens to further erode Moscow's influence in the South Caucasus. The two men, Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, died after Russian investigators detained them last week as part of an inquiry into a series of cold case mafia-style assassinations in the industrial city of Yekaterinburg that occurred over the past 25 years. One of the brothers died of heart failure, while the cause of death of the other one was being determined, Russian investigators said on Monday. On Wednesday, Russian investigators said they had charged six other detained Azerbaijanis, all Russian citizens, with murder. Authorities in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, quickly denied the Russian version of events. On Tuesday, the state prosecutor's office of Azerbaijan said in a statement that the brothers had been subjected to 'torture and murder with extreme cruelty' and that it had opened an investigation into the incident. And pro-government media outlets accused Moscow of deliberately targeting ethnic minorities as part of 'chauvinist policies' used to 'suppress internal dissent and strengthen totalitarian control.' Azerbaijan's sharp reaction laid bare Moscow's shrinking sway over a country that only a few years ago was considered one of its closest partners among former Soviet states. In 2022, just two days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Baku signed a 'declaration on allied interaction.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Euronews
a day ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Azerbaijan jails Sputnik execs amid escalating tensions with Russia
The executive director and editor-in-chief of Russia's state-run news agency Sputnik in Azerbaijan have been sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday, following a Baku police raid of the Russian state media affiliate the day before, in what appears to be a fast-moving escalation between the two countries. According to Azerbaijan's authorities, they have been found guilty of fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and legalisation of property obtained by criminal means, Baku-based international news channel AnewZ reported. Azeri APA agency reported earlier that two employees of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) were among seven people detained after the raid on the offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, owned by Rossiya Segodnya, which is in turn owned and operated by the Russian government. Another Russian state-run media outlet, Ruptly, later reported that one of its editors had been detained after attempting to film the police action at the Sputnik offices in Baku. Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry published a video showing officers leading two men to police vans in handcuffs. The tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia escalated over the past few days following the detention of over 50 Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg in raids by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) last Friday. Two people — brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov — died during the raids, and three others were seriously injured. Russia claimed that the arrests were part of a murder investigation from the early 2000s. Azerbaijan-based broadcaster AnewZ said the news of deadly raids sparked outrage and calls for justice amid what Azerbaijanis allege as abuse and ethnic profiling. Some detainees have alleged that confessions were obtained through force, threats, and coercion, including pressure on family members. Forensic experts have revealed that the Azerbaijani citizens killed during the Russian raids in Yekaterinburg died from blunt force trauma, not gunshot wounds, raising additional questions about the circumstances of the deaths. Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry condemned the operation as 'brutal and unjustified' and called on the Russian authorities to 'conduct an urgent investigation into the matter and bring the perpetrators of this unacceptable violence to justice as soon as possible,' according to AnewZ. In addition, Azerbaijan summoned Russia's envoy to Baku to protest against the deadly raids and also cancelled all cultural events planned by the Russian state and private institutions in protest against the raid on Russia's state-run Sputnik agency offices. "In response to targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence against Azerbaijanis based on their ethnicity, dem onstratively perpetrated by Russian law enforcement agencies in the Yekaterinburg region of the Russian Federation – and considering the systematic nature of such incidents in recent times – all cultural events planned in Azerbaijan involving Russian state and private entities have been cancelled," Azerbaijan's ministry of Culture said in a statement. Russia's state-run agency in Azerbaijan In February, the Azerbaijani government shut down Russia's state-funded news agency, Sputnik, but it has continued to operate, albeit with reduced staff. Although the agency's accreditation was officially revoked in February, the Azerbaijan Interior Ministry stated that its data indicated Sputnik Azerbaijan allegedly continued its activities using illegal funding sources. The director of Sputnik's parent company Rossiya Segodnya, Dmitry Kiselev — one of the most prominent Russian propagandists, who regularly makes open calls to destroy Ukraine and attack Europe with Russian missiles — said Sputnik and Azerbaijani officials had been trying to find a temporary agreement allowing it to keep working in Baku. Sputnik, Ruptly, and other affiliates of Rossiya Segodnya are widely regarded as tools for spreading the Kremlin's propaganda outside of Russia. Kiselev expressed his disconnect over the Monday arrests on Telegram, calling it a 'deliberate step aimed at worsening relations between the countries'. Azerbaijan's parliament has pulled out of planned bilateral talks in Moscow amid the recent escalation and cancelled a visit by a Russian deputy prime minister. Russian authorities denounced the state-run Sputnik office raid and detention as "unfriendly acts by Baku and the illegal arrest of Russian journalists." In additional developments on Tuesday, Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry announced that it dismantled two criminal groups in Baku, detaining Russian nationals suspected of trafficking drugs from Iran and conducting cyber fraud operations. Relations between Moscow and Baku cooled after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. As exclusively reported by Euronews, investigations into the incident revealed that the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was shot at by Russian air defence over Russia's Grozny and rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused Russia of trying to "hush up" the incident for several days. Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to Aliyev for what he called a "tragic incident" but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. In May, Aliyev decided not to attend Russia's 80th Victory Day celebrations.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Azerbaijan says brothers arrested by Russia were tortured and beaten to death
Azerbaijan says brothers arrested by Russia were tortured and beaten to death BAKU - Post-mortems on two Azerbaijani brothers who died in Russian police custody have shown that they were beaten to death, authorities in the South Caucasus country said on Tuesday as tensions rose sharply between Moscow and Baku. Azerbaijani prosecutors said they had opened a criminal investigation into the alleged murders of Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov following their arrest last week in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. The case concerns "the torture and deliberate killing with particular cruelty of Azerbaijani citizens and ethnic Azerbaijanis by officers of law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation", the state prosecutor's office said. In a further deepening of the crisis, Azerbaijan on Monday detained a group of Russian state media employees on suspicion of fraud, drawing a protest from Moscow. On Tuesday, an Azerbaijani government source told Reuters that about 15 more Russians had been arrested separately on suspicion of drug trafficking and cybercrime. The source shared videos showing them being handcuffed, made to march in line, and being bundled into police vans. The cases threaten to severely damage relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, an oil-producing country that has close ties with Turkey. Russia summoned the Azerbaijani ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday to receive an official protest over "the latest unfriendly actions of Baku, deliberate steps by the Azerbaijani side to dismantle bilateral relations", the Russian foreign ministry said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the journalists' arrests were an "extremely emotional reaction" by Azerbaijan, and Russia aimed to negotiate their release. FORENSIC TESTS The chain of events began last week when investigators in Yekaterinburg, a Russian industrial city, conducted scores of raids against ethnic Azerbaijanis whom they suspected of complicity in historic unsolved crimes, including serial killings. Russian investigators initially said Ziyaddin had died of heart failure and did not give a cause for death for Huseyn. The bodies of the men arrived in Baku on Monday evening. Adalat Hasanov, head of forensic examination at Azerbaijan's health ministry, said fresh post-mortems showed the brothers both died of "post-traumatic shock" due to severe beatings. Russian examiners' assertion that Ziyaddin, who was born in 1970, died of heart failure, was a "blatant falsehood", Hasanov told reporters. "During the follow-up examination, we discovered multiple fractures on Ziyaddin's body resulting from beatings. All of his ribs were broken, and a haemorrhage was found on his head, also caused by blunt force trauma," he said. The other brother, Huseyn, born in 1966, also died as a result of beatings, Hasanov said. He said all of the deceased internal organs had been removed during the previous autopsy in Russia, "which may indicate an attempt to conceal the true cause of death". Azerbaijan and Russia have traded barbs since the men's deaths, with Baku accusing Russian police of carrying out extrajudicial killings "on ethnic grounds", an allegation Moscow has rejected. Russian investigators said all the six men arrested held Russian passports. The Azerbaijani police raid targeting Russian journalists in Baku was conducted at the office of Sputnik Azerbaijan, the local branch of the state-run Rossiya Segodnya news agency. An Azerbaijani source said two people had been placed under formal arrest and five others were still under investigation. The case relates to alleged fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and money laundering, the source said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Azerbaijani men arrested by Russian police were beaten to death, Baku says
Azerbaijani men arrested by Russian police were beaten to death, Baku says BAKU - Post-mortems conducted in Baku on two Azerbaijani men who died last week after they were arrested by Russian police show that they were beaten to death, a state forensic examiner said on Tuesday. The deaths of the men, brothers named Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, have raised diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Baku and led to the tit-for-tat arrests of Russian state media journalists working in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia was summoned to the foreign ministry in Moscow on Tuesday to receive an official protest against Baku's "unfriendly actions" and the "illegal detention" of the journalists. The rift between Russia and Azerbaijan has widened after investigators in Yekaterinburg, a Russian industrial city, conducted scores of raids last week targeting ethnic Azerbaijanis whom they suspected of complicity in historic unsolved crimes, including serial killings. The Safarov brothers died during the raids, in which six people were arrested. Russian investigators initially said Ziyaddin had died of heart failure and did not give a cause for death for Huseyn. The bodies of the men arrived in Baku on Monday evening for forensic examination. Adalat Hasanov, head of forensic examination at Azerbaijan's health ministry, said fresh post-mortems showed the brothers both died of "post-traumatic shock" due to severe beatings. Russian examiners' assertion that Ziyaddin, who was born in 1970, died of heart failure, is a "blatant falsehood," Hasanov told reporters. "During the follow-up examination, we discovered multiple fractures on Ziyaddin's body resulting from beatings. All of his ribs were broken, and a haemorrhage was found on his head, also caused by blunt force trauma," he said. The other brother, Huseyn, born in 1966, also died as a result of beatings, Hasanov said. He said all of the deceased internal organs had been removed during the previous autopsy in Russia, "which may indicate an attempt to conceal the true cause of death." Azerbaijan and Russia have traded barbs since the men's deaths, with Baku accusing Russian police of carrying out extrajudicial killings "on ethnic grounds", an allegation Moscow has rejected. Russian investigators said all the six men arrested held Russian passports. On Monday, police in Baku arrested two journalists working for Sputnik Azerbaijan, the local affiliate of Russian state outlet Rossiya Segodnya, and said it would investigate the agency for illegal funding. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Azerbaijani men arrested by Russian police were beaten to death, Baku says
By Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou Azerbaijani men arrested by Russian police were beaten to death, Baku says BAKU, - Post-mortems conducted in Baku on two Azerbaijani men who died last week after they were arrested by Russian police show that they were beaten to death, a state forensic examiner said on Tuesday. The deaths of the men, brothers named Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, have raised diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Baku and led to the tit-for-tat arrests of Russian state media journalists working in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia was summoned to the foreign ministry in Moscow on Tuesday to receive an official protest against Baku's "unfriendly actions" and the "illegal detention" of the journalists. The rift between Russia and Azerbaijan has widened after investigators in Yekaterinburg, a Russian industrial city, conducted scores of raids last week targeting ethnic Azerbaijanis whom they suspected of complicity in historic unsolved crimes, including serial killings. The Safarov brothers died during the raids, in which six people were arrested. Russian investigators initially said Ziyaddin had died of heart failure and did not give a cause for death for Huseyn. The bodies of the men arrived in Baku on Monday evening for forensic examination. Adalat Hasanov, head of forensic examination at Azerbaijan's health ministry, said fresh post-mortems showed the brothers both died of "post-traumatic shock" due to severe beatings. Russian examiners' assertion that Ziyaddin, who was born in 1970, died of heart failure, is a "blatant falsehood," Hasanov told reporters. "During the follow-up examination, we discovered multiple fractures on Ziyaddin's body resulting from beatings. All of his ribs were broken, and a haemorrhage was found on his head, also caused by blunt force trauma," he said. The other brother, Huseyn, born in 1966, also died as a result of beatings, Hasanov said. He said all of the deceased internal organs had been removed during the previous autopsy in Russia, "which may indicate an attempt to conceal the true cause of death." Azerbaijan and Russia have traded barbs since the men's deaths, with Baku accusing Russian police of carrying out extrajudicial killings "on ethnic grounds", an allegation Moscow has rejected. Russian investigators said all the six men arrested held Russian passports. On Monday, police in Baku arrested two journalists working for Sputnik Azerbaijan, the local affiliate of Russian state outlet Rossiya Segodnya, and said it would investigate the agency for illegal funding. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
