Igor Kartavykh, Director of Sputnik Azerbaijan, was released from custody
Igor Kartavykh, the head of the editorial office of Sputnik Azerbaijan, who was arrested in Baku, was released. This was announced to Kommersant on October 10 by Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, who participated in the negotiations.
It is noted that the dialogue took place at the level of presidential aides. According to the newspaper, Yuri Ushakov worked directly with his Azerbaijani counterpart Hikmet Hajiyev, and the decision was made on the eve of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe.
According to Ushakov, the assistants had the opportunity to coordinate this work directly with the leaders of the countries, thanks to which they managed to free Kartavykh.
In addition, the Russian side released one of the Azerbaijani citizens detained in Russia.
On June 30, Azerbaijani security forces conducted an operation in the office of Sputnik Azerbaijan. At the same time, two Russian journalists were detained in Baku — Igor Kartavykh, the head of the agency's editorial office, and Evgeny Belousov, the editor-in-chief. Later, eight more Russian citizens were detained in the city. On July 2, the Russian Embassy in Baku reported that Russians had received complaints about the use of physical violence, document checks and visits by unknown persons.
On August 30, Dmitry Kiselyov, Director General of the Russia Today media group, called on Baku to release Sputnik Azerbaijan journalists. According to him, the journalists have been in custody for two months, and Baku has not had any questions about their professional activities.
In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said on September 4 that the release of Russian citizens detained in Azerbaijan was an important step in relations between Moscow and Baku.
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