Tit-for-tat arrests and custodial deaths: Why Azerbaijan is picking a fight with Russia
As tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan boil over, the latest row threatens to unravel decades of strategic cooperation and reshape the balance of power in the South Caucasus.
This after authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two journalists from the local branch of Russia's state-funded news agency, Sputnik, on Monday. Azerbaijan's Ministry of Internal Affairs in a statement said it had launched an investigation into the outlet, Sputnik Azerbaijan, following raids at its offices.
The Ministry alleges that Sputnik continued to operate in the country through "illegal financing" as the outlet was closed in February 2025 under laws targeting foreign state-linked media. Despite its accreditation being revoked, the Ministry said Sputnik continued to operate with a smaller staff.
Video released by police shows two men - identified as Sputnik Azerbaijan's editor-in-chief, Yevgeny Belousov, and its director, Igor Kartavykh - being led in handcuffs to police vans. Some Azerbaijani outlets reported that two alleged FSB agents were arrested during the raid, but there was no immediate confirmation of those arrests from Baku.
For context - FSB or The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the principal security agency of Russia, and the main successor agency to the erstwhile Soviet Union's KGB.
Russian authorities, on their par,t decried the move as 'unfriendly acts by Baku' and the 'illegal arrest of Russian journalists'.
The arrests though, seem to be an exercise in smoke and mirrors -- just a tool to pressure Russia.
Why?
Because Azerbaijan wants justice for the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis in a police raid last week in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. According to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, Russian law enforcement conducted a slew of raids at the homes of Azerbaijani residents in the industrial city in Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday.
Reports suggest that Russian authorities detained about 50 people suspected of involvement in a string of historic unsolved, serious crimes, including suspected serial killings, between 2001 and 2011.
The deceased 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." He further described the raids as "savagery," claiming that others were beaten and subjected to electric shocks.
A livid Azerbaijan on Saturday summoned the Russian Embassy's chargé d'affaires in Baku, Pyotr Volokovykh, demanding a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible.
The bodies of the two brothers were expected to arrive in Baku by plane on Monday evening for an expert examination.
The news has sparked concerns in the European Union, with its Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Peter Michalko, condemning Russia’s violent arrest of ethnic Azeris.
The Russian Investigative Committee of the Sverdlovsk region surprisingly admitted that two suspects had indeed died during their arrest. But committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko claimed that one died “as a result of heart failure” whilst the cause of death of the second person is “currently being established”.
The diplomatic fallout has been swift.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture in a post on X declared that it has canceled all cultural events linked to Russia due to the “targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement agencies against Azeris”. Furthermore, Azerbaijan’s government has withdrawn from planned bilateral talks in Moscow, and cancelled a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk.
This latest episode has only further fanned the flames of discord between the two nations. Russia and Azerbaijan had enjoyed largely cordial relations since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. In fact, Moscow remains one of Baku’s main suppliers of arms. But relations between the two nations have grown increasingly strained in recent times.
Notably, since Russian air defenses shot down a passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny in the republic of Chechnya in December 2024. The plane ultimately crashed in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of 67 people aboard.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Russia of trying to "hush up" the incident for several days. Surprisingly Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology to Aliyev over the crash, though he stopped short of accepting responsibility. Putin deflected the blame, saying air defense systems in Chechnya were responding to a Ukrainian drone strike on the day of the disaster.
The apology doesn’t seem to have been enough. In May, Aliyev declined an invitation to attend Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Russia took note then, as well as when Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visited Baku in the same month. Was it a signal of closer ties between Baku and Kyiv? Who knows.
Given that Russia shares its southern border with Azerbaijan, it definitely set off alarm bells in Moscow, with this latest row only serving to make those alarms ring louder.
