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Azerbaijan-Russia relations crisis bursts

Posted by Europe correspondent on

Porto, Portugal 30.06.2025 In an unprecedented action of protest
Porto, Portugal 30.06.2025 Azerbaijan has canceled all cultural events planned by Russian state and private institutions. The decision has been taken in condemnation of the killings of Azerbaijani citizens during police raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, the officials in Baku said. There are reports of two, or five intentional killings.

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Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry wrote on X that concerts, exhibitions, festivals and performances were canceled on account of “the demonstrative targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement agencies against Azerbaijanis on ethnic grounds in Yekaterinburg.”

According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Russian law enforcement raided homes of Azerbaijani residents in the industrial city in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Two Azerbaijani citizens were killed, it said, along with several others seriously injured and nine detained.

On June, 29, the ministry summoned the Russian Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Baku, Pyotr Volokovykh, demanding a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible.

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The victims were identified as Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, both around 60 years old. Their brother, Sayfaddin Huseynli, told Azerbaijani public broadcaster ITV that the men were tortured to death “without any trial or investigation, despite their innocence.” The raids of so-called law-enforcement were “savagery,” he said, claiming that others were beaten and subjected to electric shocks.

“The so-called Russian law enforcement agencies broke into houses in the middle of the night, beat and took people away like beasts,” Huseynli said.

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The Azerbaijani government also announced the cancellation of a planned visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey 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,” state media reported.

In a statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry announced they expected “that the matter will be investigated and all perpetrators of violence brought to justice as soon as possible.“

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While avoiding the facts of the reported deaths, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the raids formed part of an investigation into previously committed crimes.

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Tensions between the two countries have been strained for some time.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declined an invitation to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow in May. In contrast, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga visited Baku later that month, signaling closer ties between Baku and Kyiv.

Relations between Moscow and Baku cooled after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Aliyev said it was damaged in Russian sky, albeit unintentionally during drones counter-attack. He accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the incident for several days talking about a flock of birds, getting crushed into plane. Facing the evident, Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.

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