Replying to a question by TASS about Azerbaijan’s reaction to members of its diaspora being detained in Yekaterinburg, the Kremlin official noted that these events are related to the operations of law enforcement agencies and cannot serve as a cause for any demarches. "We are interested in the continued development of our good relations with Azerbaijan," Peskov said.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture cancelled all cultural events in the country along the lines of Russian state and private institutions. Additionally, Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation has cancelled its visit to Moscow to a meeting of a joint commission on interparliamentary cooperation.
The move was motivated by "acts of violence against Azerbaijanis" committed by law enforcement officers in Yekaterinburg who thwarted the activities of an ethnic group. Earlier, Baku expressed protest over the incident, claiming that two Azerbaijanis were killed and several more were wounded in the police raids.
About law enforcement operationAccording to the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee’s directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region, the police thwarted the activities of an ethnic group, opening a criminal case on charges of murder committed in collaboration by a group of individuals, a contract murder, and an attempted murder. Investigators say that the defendants in the case were involved in several murders and attempted murders committed in Yekaterinburg in 2001, 2010, and 2011. According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Charge d’Affaires Pyotr Volokovykh who was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry provided the necessary explanations of the situation.