Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov says Russia will attempt to prevent Alexander Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan.
Israeli-Russian blogger Lapshin was detained in Minsk on December 15 at the request of the Azerbaijani government. He was accused by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan of illegally crossing onto the territory of Nagorno – Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s breakaway region currently controlled by Armenian forces.
Lapshin was to be deported in early January after Belarus and Azerbaijan arrived at an agreement for his extradition.
However, according to Israeli newspaper
Haaretz,
an Israeli Foreign Ministry official appealed to Russia for help a little more than a week ago. At a press conference, Lavrov publicly announced Russia’s intention to come to the aid of the dual-citizen.
“Russia is opposed to the criminalization of visits by journalists or other people to this territory or other territories in different regions. Moscow disagrees with the extradition to a third country of Russians detained abroad. We have contacted Mr. Lapshin through the consul. We know he is also an Israeli citizen and that Israeli diplomats have also contacted him. We will take all measures to settle the situation with full respect for the rights of the Russian citizen, who is also a citizen of Israel. We are working closely with Israelis in this regard”, Lavrov said.
Lapshin’s arrest followed immediately in the wake of an official state visit to Azerbaijan by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the country in early December in an attempt to shore-up relations with several Muslim countries of the former Soviet Union.
A $5 billion arms agreement
was concluded for the purchase Israeli drones and radar systems during the December 13-14 visit.
In 2015,
around 16,500 foreigners
visited Nagorno-Karabakh.
Lapshin’s
travel blog
is one of the most popular and widely – read travel blogs available in Russian.
