Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry on Sunday canceled Russian-linked cultural events amid diplomatic fallout over the deaths of two ethnic Azeri during police raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
The Foreign Ministry in Baku summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires, Pyotr Volokovykh, on Saturday to protest what it called the “brutal killing” of two Azerbaijanis during Friday’s raids. The ministry said several others were seriously injured and nine were arrested.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Volokovykh had “offered the necessary explanations” to Baku after he was summoned. The ministry said those arrested were Azerbaijani-born Russian citizens accused of “past crimes,” but it did not mention the deaths.
Police investigators in Yekterinberg said the raids targeted an “ethnic criminal group” linked to murders between 2001 and 2011. They claimed some of those who were arrested confessed to crimes, but gave no details on the number of arrests.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, later confirmed the two deaths during the police raids, saying the cause of death for one of the individuals appears to have been heart failure. Authorities said they were still trying to establish the cause of the second person’s death.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry announced the cancellation of concerts, exhibitions and other events organized by Russian public and private groups. It cited what it described as “demonstrative targeted and extrajudicial killings” by Russian law enforcement based on ethnicity.
The Kremlin said it “sincerely regrets” the cancellation of Russian cultural programs in Azerbaijan.
At the same time, Azerbaijan’s parliament also withdrew from an upcoming bilateral meeting in Moscow, and Baku canceled a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk.
“The government of Azerbaijan does not consider it appropriate under the current circumstances for Overchuk or any other official representative of Russia to visit the country,” wrote the Azerbaijani news agency Report.
Later, on Monday, Azerbaijani media reported that law enforcement authorities in Baku were carrying out searches at the office of Sputnik Azerbaijan, the local affiliate of the Russian state news network.
The outlet officially suspended its operations earlier this year after Azerbaijan’s government restricted foreign ownership of media companies in the country, but it has continued to publish content despite the new rules.
Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have grown increasingly strained since Russian air defenses shot down a passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny in the republic of Chechnya in December. The plane ultimately crashed in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the crash. Still, he stopped short of accepting responsibility, saying air defense systems in Chechnya were responding to a Ukrainian drone strike on the day of the disaster.
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