New Scandal Breaks Out Between Azerbaijan And Russia

• 4.05.2025, 15:44

Baku demands an explanation.

Azerbaijan has demanded explanations from Russia over the detention of the country's Milli Majlis (parliament) deputy Azer Badamov at Moscow airport. Azerbaijani media reported that Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizadeh confirmed reports that Badamov, who was flying to Astrakhan with a connecting flight to Moscow, was detained at Moscow's Vnukovo airport and prevented from boarding a flight to Astrakhan. He was declared banned from entering Russia. Later he was sent back to Baku, Radio Liberty reported.

Hajizadeh said the decision on the entry ban was taken without prior notice and explanation. The Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized that the MP was going to Astrakhan as part of a delegation to participate in the events dedicated to the 102nd anniversary of the birth of former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev. The visit was organized at the invitation of the vice-governor of the Astrakhan region Denis Afanasyev.

A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to Hajizadeh, said the issue would be investigated, but gave no explanation about the reasons for the decision to ban the entry. Baku regards Moscow's actions as an unfriendly move.

Azerbaijani news agency 1news suggests that Badamov was banned from entering Russia as a response to his remarks about State Duma deputy Nikolai Valuyev, who in turn was blacklisted in Azerbaijan. The conflict began after Valuyev commented in his Telegram channel on the news about the closure of the so-called Russian House in Baku, reportedly using insulting language against Azerbaijanis. In response, Badamov wrote on Facebook: "If you try to artistically portray an average representative of the 'shobla', the best way to do it is a portrait of Nikolai Valuev. It is enough to look at the anthropological type of this creature to realize that it is a rare exhibit of a dead-end branch of evolution."