BAKU/MOSCOW: Authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two journalists from the local branch of a Russian state news agency on Monday in a move likely to further stoke tensions with Moscow following arrests in Russia of ethnic Azerbaijanis suspected of serious crimes.
In a statement, Azerbaijan’s interior ministry said it had launched an investigation into the outlet, Sputnik Azerbaijan, after raiding its offices earlier on Monday.
Russia’s RIA state news agency said two staff members – the head of the editorial board and the chief editor – had been detained. Azerbaijan’s interior ministry published video showing officers leading two men to police vans in handcuffs.
Tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus, have risen in recent days after investigators in Yekaterinburg, a Russian industrial city, arrested six people following a slew of raids in connection with historic unsolved crimes, including serial killings.
They said they had detained six people, all of whom had Russian passports, but they also said two suspects had died. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry identified the people as ethnic Azerbaijanis.
One of the suspects died of heart failure, Russian investigators said in a statement, and medical tests would reveal the cause of death of another suspect.
The bodies of the suspects are expected to arrive in Baku by plane on Monday evening for expert examination.
Baku has accused the Russian police of carrying out extrajudicial killings “on ethnic grounds”, an allegation Moscow has rejected.
Earlier on Monday, as the raid on Sputnik Azerbaijan was underway, Russia summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Moscow over what it described as Baku’s “unfriendly actions” and the “illegal detention” of Russian journalists working in the country.
Police in Baku said they would investigate Sputnik Azerbaijan over illegal funding.
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