Igor Kartavykh flew from Baku to Russia.
Sputnik Azerbaijan Executive Director Igor Kartavykh has been released and flown to Russia.
As reported by the Caucasian Knot, the first meeting in a long time between Russian and Azerbaijani leaders Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev took place on October 9 in Dushanbe. Two missiles fired by Russia's air defense system did not directly hit the AZAL plane, but exploded several meters away, Putin stated during the meeting. On October 10, following the meeting, it was announced that Sputnik Azerbaijan Executive Director Igor Kartavykh and former director of the Moscow Satire Theater Mammadali Agayev had been transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest. This decision had been agreed upon before the meeting between Putin and Aliyev.
On June 28, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on Russian authorities to investigate the deaths and injuries of Azerbaijanis who suffered as a result of a special operation by security forces in Yekaterinburg on June 27. Experts in Baku named blunt force trauma as the cause of death of brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, while the Russian side cited a heart attack. On June 30, Azerbaijani security forces searched the office of the Russian agency Sputnik Azerbaijan and detained two people, calling them agents of Russian special services; they were arrested. Also on July 1, the court arrested eight Russian citizens, detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime. On July 7, a Baku court rejected the appeals of the lawyers of Sputnik journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov to change the measure of restraint.
The head of Sputnik Azerbaijan has been released from custody, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced.
"Kartavykh was released from custody and flew to Russia," RIA Novosti quoted her as saying.
On October 15, she also stated that Moscow was committed to further discussions with Baku regarding the situation surrounding the Russians arrested in Azerbaijan with a view to their speedy release and return home. "A step forward in this direction was the change in the preventive measure for the head of Sputnik Azerbaijan, Igor Kartavykh," Sputnik Near Abroad quoted her as saying.
Relations between Moscow and Baku noticeably deteriorated after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board from Baku to Grozny in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. More details can be found in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Baku-Grozny Air Crash" and in the article "Geopolitical Confrontation: What the AZAL Plane Crash Led to".
The latest round of deterioration in relations between the two countries has been marked by ethnic raids in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan. Baku accuses Russian authorities of extrajudicial killings of Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in Azerbaijan-Russia Relations".
On October 10, it was announced that Sputnik Azerbaijan Executive Director Igor Kartavykh and one of the Azerbaijanis arrested in Russia were released. This decision was agreed upon before the meeting between Putin and Aliyev in Dushanbe.
The preconditions for resolving the diplomatic crisis between Russia and Azerbaijan were Moscow's recognition of responsibility for the downing of the AZAL plane and the payment of compensation. Putin's statement in Dushanbe on this issue provided an opportunity to normalize relations in the interests of both sides, analysts noted.
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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/416473
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