Main points
- Azerbaijani police conducted searches in the office of the Russian agency Sputnik in Baku, two FSB officers were detained.
- Russia expressed concern that diplomats allegedly could not contact the detained “journalists.”
Searches at Sputnik office in Baku on June 30, 2025 / Collage by 24 Kanal, screenshots
Azerbaijani police have conducted searches at the offices of the Russian propaganda agency Sputnik in Baku. As a result of the operation, two FSB officers who worked for the company were detained.
Vesti.az reported this on Monday, June 30, citing the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs, 24 Kanal reports. This happened against the backdrop of a raid by Russian security forces in Yekaterinburg.
What is known about the searches
On Friday, June 27, Russian security forces detained more than 50 Azerbaijani nationals in connection with the unsolved 2001 murder of Yunis Pashayev. The prime suspects included brothers Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, who died shortly after. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry later criticized the raid in Yekaterinburg.
Against this background, on June 30, it became known about searches in the office of the editorial office of the Russian “Sputnik Azerbaijan” . Two employees were detained there – allegedly FSB employees.
Reference: Sputnik is a news agency founded by Russia Today that includes websites, online broadcasts, a radio broadcast service and press centers in different parts of the world.
By the way, in February, a decision was made in Azerbaijan, according to which the number of journalists of “Sputnik Azerbaijan” should be equal to the number of employees of “AZERTAC” in Russia. However, the editorial staff did not fulfill this requirement.
How did they react in Russia?
The official representative of the MFA of the aggressor country, Maria Zakharova, stated that the Russian embassy informed the MFA, MIA and security service of Azerbaijan about the situation, but has not yet received a response. The consular department employees are allegedly not allowed to see Russian journalists.
We are concerned that for more than 2 hours Russian diplomats in Baku have been unable to contact journalists – Russian citizens, the statement says.
