MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) intends to exploit the ongoing rift between Russia and Azerbaijan to incite ethnic hatred. According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, there are plans to carry out sabotage attacks using paid defectors from Russia.
"According to our information, the Security Service of Ukraine intends to use the Russian-Azerbaijani contradictions at the current moment to incite hatred and hostility on national grounds. In particular, we are aware of plans to use defectors from Russia who are ready to carry out acts of sabotage against citizens, representative offices and cultural sites of Azerbaijan for a fee under the Russian flag," the diplomat said at a briefing.
"The idea, should the provocation succeed, is to spread viral information about some form of Russian aggression in the Azerbaijani, Turkish and European media space."
According to her, this once again proves that "the Kiev regime is trying to use any available opportunities and reasons to destabilize Russia's relations with its closest partners and neighbors. This is the logic of terrorists, as we have stated many times before, and the sponsorship of terrorism, which is what the West is doing."
About the split between Moscow and Baku
On June 28, the Investigative Committee said it had suppressed the activities of a group involved in a string of murders committed in Yekaterinburg in the early 2000s. Eight defendants were taken into custody. According to preliminary data, one of the defendants died from heart failure. The cause of death of the second person are being established. Their bodies were taken from Yekaterinburg to Baku, which later said that a forensic examination had detected signs of violence and protested to Russia.
Events with the participation of Russia were canceled, Russian journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov and several other Russian citizens were detained. Azerbaijan and Russia exchanged notes of protest, and diplomats were summoned to the foreign ministry.