Russians arrested in Baku allowed to meet with relatives

Relatives of the Russian citizens arrested in Baku were able to see them in custody, the Russian consul called their conditions of detention good.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on June 30, Azerbaijani security forces conducted a search in the office of the Russian agency "Sputnik Azerbaijan" and detained two people, calling them agents of the Russian special services, they werearrested. On July 1, the court arrested eight Russian citizens, detained on charges of drug transit and cybercrimes. Moscow expects Baku to refuse excessive and unfair harshness towards the detained Russians, Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said on July 9.

On July 16, relatives of two of them, Ilya Bezugly's sister and Sergei Sofronov's mother, reported meetings with the arrested men in Baku.

Anastasia Bezugly reported that her brother "maintains a positive attitude" and has no complaints about the conditions of detention. According to her, the mothers of the arrested men were able to send them parcels with things. "He says that everything is in short supply (...) We are now actively receiving help from both the Russian and Azerbaijani sides," Postnews quotes Bezugly as saying.

Sergei Sofronov's mother said that the meeting lasted only 15 minutes. According to the woman, she talked to her son through the glass. She called Sergei's condition "normal". "The bruises have gone away, there is a small bruise on his eye (...) These were more emotions than a conversation," the "Beware, News" channel quotes her as saying.

An Azerbaijani resource also reported on the evening of July 16 that "the mothers were allowed to see the arrested men," without providing any specific information. "The Ombudsman of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva helped organize the visits. The Russian consul visited the Russians several times and was convinced that their conditions of detention were in perfect order," minval_az reports.

Against the backdrop of the diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Baku, security forces in various Russian regions have developed complaints about ethnic Azerbaijanis, including those with Russian citizenship. At the same time, Russians and tourists living in Azerbaijan complained about visits from security forces and demands to appear at migration services.

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, while flying from Baku to Grozny. You can read more about this in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Baku-Grozny flight crash" and in the material "Geopolitical confrontation: what did the crash of the AZAL plane lead to".

Materials about the deterioration of relations between the two states have been collected by the "Caucasian Knot" on the thematic page "Collapse of Baku-Moscow ties".

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