Crisis grows! Azerbaijan raids Sputnik office

According to a statement by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs, a search was carried out in the Baku office of the Russian news agency Sputnik.

According to Sputnik, Sputnik Branch Manager Igor Kartavıh and Editor-in-Chief Yevgeniy Belousov were detained in Baku.

According to local media reports, two detained Sputnik employees were alleged to be members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

An employee of the Sputnik Azerbaijan office said that more than ten employees were still in the office in Baku. The Sputnik Azerbaijan employee in question stated: "The police called most of our employees to the Sputnik Azerbaijan office, but there are some who were not called anywhere. We have not been able to reach them for several hours. They are still in the office."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is treating information about the detention of Sputnik Azerbaijan and Ruptly employees with caution.

Peskov stressed that Moscow hopes that direct contacts with Baku could lead to the release of detained Russian journalists.

TENSION BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND RUSSIA

It was claimed that an Azerbaijani passenger plane was damaged by ground fire while in Russian airspace on December 25, 2024. It was claimed that this was the source of the crisis.

Source: Sputnik-AA