MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. The Russian nationals detained in Azerbaijan are held in double-bunking prison cells, and they are treated quite neutrally, the mother of one of the detainees revealed.

"My son Sergey was arrested in Baku. He was charged with the gravest crimes, including drug trafficking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics from Iran, and cybercrimes <…>. He had just went shopping after work in the evening and found himself at a wrong place and at a wrong time," shared Maria Sofronova, the mother of Sergey Sofronov, 23. "Embassy employees were finally granted access to the detainees today," the woman continued, saying that she had seen photos and videos of the guys who look okay.

"They are held in double-bunking prison cells, the conditions are quite good, and the food is excellent," Sofronova wrote on her page on VKontakte.

Apart from her, relatives of two other detainees are currently staying in Baku, she added. Sofronova told TASS earlier that she considers the accusations against her son to be absurd. Her son’s employer, businessman Valentin Preobrazhensky, has said that Sergey has been working on AI-related projects.

On June 28, the Russian Investigative Committee’s department in the Sverdlovsk Region said that an ethnic criminal group involved in murders in Yekaterinburg between 2001 and 2011 had been dismantled. Eight suspects were taken into custody as part of the investigation into the case.

According to preliminary data, one of the suspects died from heart failure. The cause of death of the second is being established. The bodies were transported from Yekaterinburg to Baku and, after a forensic examination, were buried in Azerbaijan.

Baku lodged a protest against the actions of Russian law enforcement officers and subsequently canceled cultural and other events involving Russian participation. Later, as part of a media crackdown, Russian journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov, along with eight other Russian citizens, were detained and placed in custody for four months in the Azerbaijani capital.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that consular access had been granted to 13 Russian nationals detained in Azerbaijan. The two countries exchanged notes of protest over each other’s actions, and diplomats were summoned by their foreign ministries.