(Adnkronos) – Tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia are rising after the Azerbaijani airliner flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan last December due to the impact with “an external object”, as investigators have established. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly said that the plane was mistakenly shot down by Russian air defense systems. Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan, without however admitting Moscow’s responsibility for the incident.
Baku has announced that it has denied entry to Russian deputy Nikolai Valuev, a former boxing champion, who in the past had declared that the country used diaspora groups to engage in criminal activities. “The offensive statements against Azerbaijan and our country made by Nikolai Valuev and his threats against our country are absolutely unacceptable,” the Foreign Ministry wrote. Valuev is the third Russian deputy not allowed to enter Azerbaijan.
And last week the Azerbaijani authorities ordered the closure of the Russian Cultural Center which depends on the Rossotrudnichestvo agency, denouncing the lack of registration and, as BakuTv had reported, the presence of intelligence elements (Baku also ordered the closure of local offices by UsAid). “Their main source of influence in Russia is the diaspora. Everyone must pass the filter of the law, illegal migration, tax evasion, and other ‘interesting’ activities will soon be brought to light”, the deputy had written.
