BAKU, July 3. /TASS/. A Russian consul held a three-hour meeting with the fellow countrymen that were detained by Azerbaijan, the Russian Embassy in the country said.

"The press service of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan confirms that consular access to the arrested citizens of the Russian Federation was indeed provided. The head of the embassy’s consular department spent three hours speaking with our compatriots," the embassy said, without elaborating.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously told TASS that consular access to the Russian detainees in Azerbaijan had been approved.

Russian journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov, along with the country’s eight other nationals, were put under arrest in Azerbaijan for four months earlier this week. Azerbaijan and Russia exchanged protests, and their Foreign Ministries summoned each other’s diplomats.