“We are concerned that for more than two hours Russian diplomats in Baku have been unable to establish contact with journalists, citizens of Russia,” the spokeswoman told Sputnik news agency.

According to Zakharova, “the staff of the consular department of the Russian Embassy is not allowed access to Russian journalists”, nor “information about the reasons for these actions has been provided”.

The diplomat added that the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service of Azerbaijan were informed about this, but Moscow has not yet received any response.

Earlier on Monday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reported an ongoing raid on Sputnik’s Baku office, without specifying the reason for the intervention.

According to one of Sputnik Azerbaijan’s employees, the police summoned all of the media outlet’s employees who were not at their jobs in Baku to come to the office.

At the same time, security forces cordoned off the perimeter of the building.

On June 28, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires in Baku, Petr Volkov, due to the detention in the city of Yekaterinburg of Russian citizens of Azerbaijani origin within the framework of a murder investigation.

Zakharova stated that the diplomat offered relevant explanations and that the case was under control of the competent authorities.

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