MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Russia is in contact with Azerbaijan, including through law enforcement channels, regarding the situation involving Russian journalists who were arrested in the republic, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.
"We are maintaining contacts with the Azerbaijani side on this matter, including along law enforcement lines. We are convinced that all emerging issues should be resolved in a spirit of partnership, using the existing political and diplomatic channels. This approach, in practice, serves the fundamental interests of the peoples of our two countries," she said.
On June 30, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that law enforcement agencies had carried out an operation at the office of the Sputnik Azerbaijan news agency. Later, the ministry reported the detention of several individuals at the agency’s office, including the head of Sputnik Azerbaijan, Igor Kartavykh, and Editor-in-Chief Evgeny Belousov.
On July 1, a court ordered the arrest of Kartavykh and Belousov for a period of four months. The journalists from Sputnik Azerbaijan were charged under the Azerbaijani Criminal Code with "fraud causing significant damage," "illegal entrepreneurship generating large-scale income," and "legalization of property obtained by criminal means."
Sputnik’s editorial office stated that they had not received any official prohibitions regarding their activities in Azerbaijan and that a dialogue had been underway at the level of working groups to address possible disagreements.
On July 1, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Moscow Rahman Mustafayev was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was handed a diplomatic note demanding the immediate release of the Russian journalists detained in Baku.