The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Azerbaijan to restore bilateral relations to a level corresponding to "strategic cooperation" after tensions between the two countries escalated over the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia and the subsequent arrests of Russian citizens in Baku, "Reuters" reports.
The diplomatic conflict erupted last week when two Azerbaijanis died in police raids in Russia. According to authorities in Baku, autopsies showed signs of beatings. Moscow, for its part, claims that one of the men died of a heart problem.
In response to the case, Azerbaijan arrested two Russian state journalists, as well as about 15 other Russian citizens on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime. The Russian Foreign Ministry sharply criticized the lack of access to the detainees and demanded immediate measures to normalize relations.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia had built its partnership with Azerbaijan on the basis of mutual respect, but "certain forces" were trying to undermine this relationship. "We call on the Azerbaijani side to return our relations to the level envisaged in official documents - the level of strategic cooperation," she stressed.
The Kremlin, for its part, announced that it would negotiate with the aim of releasing the detained Russian journalists, who, according to Baku, are accused of fraud and are being held in pre-trial detention.
Meanwhile, an investigation into the crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane that occurred at the end of last year, in which 38 people died, is continuing in Baku. The head of the investigation, Nemat Avzov, announced that the final conclusions would be published in the coming days. The Azerbaijani side claims that the plane was inadvertently shot down by Russian air defense systems.