PYATIGORSK, July 1. /TASS/. The Russian side is consistently sharing its principled approaches with Azerbaijan to mitigate damage to bilateral relations, a senior Russian diplomat said.

"Today, they are trying to incriminate us for pressuring ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia in connection with the recent detention of Russian nationals suspected of severe crimes in Yekaterinburg. For our part, we continue to share with our Azerbaijani partners our approach on neutralizing the damage to our bilateral relations with Baku. We hope that the Azerbaijani authorities will adhere to this approach as well," Foreign Ministry’s Fourth CIS Department Deputy Director Dmitry Masyuk said at the opening of the Gorchakov Foundation's "Caucasian Dialogue" scientific and educational program at the Mashuk Knowledge Center in Pyatigorsk.

Situation with Sputnik Azerbaijan

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry announced that law enforcement officials were conducting an operation at the office of Russia’s Sputnik Azerbaijan news agency. After that announcement, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said that the agency’s employees had become unreachable.

Sputnik stated that they had not received a formal ban preventing them from working in Azerbaijan. The news agency said that a dialogue was underway between working groups to settle possible disagreements.

Detentions in Yekaterinburg

The press service of the Sverdlovsk Region branch of the Russian Investigative Committee reported earlier that police had carried out a raid on a criminal enterprise. Investigators say the defendants were involved in several murders and attempted murders in Yekaterinburg in 2001, 2010, and 2011. The Russian Investigative Committee noted that six people were detained in total. According to preliminary information, one of the suspects died of heart failure. The cause of death of the second defendant is being established.

According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Russian charge d'affaires Pyotr Volkovykh, who was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, provided the necessary explanations regarding the situation. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized the importance of providing clarity to Baku about why the Azerbaijani nationals in Yekaterinburg were detained. In turn, Baku showed its protest over the actions of law enforcement officials by canceling cultural and other events with Russia. The Kremlin emphasized that Moscow regrets Baku's actions.