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Why Russia, US comment on false claims about Lapshin?

Politics Materials 18 January 2017 15:15 (UTC +04:00)
The Armenian journalists got reasons to smile on Jan. 17, as both the Russian Foreign Ministry and the US Department of State, being surprisingly naive, started commenting on the journalists' statements regarding the infamous blogger Alexander Lapshin
Why Russia, US comment on false claims about Lapshin?

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:

The Armenian journalists got reasons to smile on Jan. 17, as both the Russian Foreign Ministry and the US Department of State, being surprisingly naive, started commenting on the journalists' statements regarding the infamous blogger Alexander Lapshin.

On Jan. 17, during the press-conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2016 the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to a question of an Armenian journalist about Lapshin, which did not contain anything having to do with the truth.

Saying that "Baku is trying to pursue the "journalist" just because of his visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh", the Armenian journalist called for justice, which should be implemented by the Russian Foreign Ministry because one of Lapshin’s three citizenships is Russian.

Lavrov, who is the head of the foreign ministry and is supposed to be aware, did not correct the Armenian journalist for some reason, and did not disprove the allegation about the reasons for detention and possible extradition, but instead said that it is impossible to restrict anyone’s freedom for visiting even illegally occupied territories.

On the same night, in Washington, another Armenian journalist decided to milk the same pitiful story about Lapshin, and asked about the position of the US on the issue, during the regular press briefing by the US State Department’s Spokesman John Kirby.

“I’d say this is really something for the relevant countries to speak to, especially when you’re talking about extradition requests. That’s really for them to speak to,” John Kirby said.

This is an unprecedented case of dissemination of absolute misinformation via media and representatives of the two countries’ foreign ministries have become surprisingly involved in it.

In fact, Alexander Lapshin, a citizen of several countries, hasn't just illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories. There were others before him, and Baku didn't demand their extradition, since such separatism-promoting visits rely more on one's conscience.

In fact, Lapshin (who is not a journalist and is just a blogger) is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan.

That is, Lapshin didn’t simply visit the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Afterwards, in order to write a series of critical articles about Azerbaijan and knowing that he is in the “black list” of the country’s Foreign Ministry, which barred him from visiting Azerbaijan, Lapshin entered the country using another ID, where his name was written in Ukrainian.

Lapshin deliberately violated Azerbaijan’s laws and called to continue the occupation of the country’s territories by Armenia.

As an Azerbaijani journalist, I’d like to ask the foreign ministry representatives of Russia and the US the following question: How would your law enforcement agencies react if someone, barred from entering your countries, did it using forged documents, or fake IDs?

If I am not mistaken, that’s how terrorists infiltrated the European countries, namely by using forged documents and ignoring bans of the official authorities.

Are Russia and the US ready to turn a blind eye and allow citizens to enter their soil, knowing they were previously banned from doing so for objective reasons?

Russia itself, for one reason or another, has included those journalists in various stop-lists according to which they were banned from entering the country. For example, Jeff Schell, chairman of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, has been recently denied entry into Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Shell has been included in the stop-list in response to the US sanctions against Russian citizens. How would Moscow react if Shell decided to enter the country with false documents or the Ukrainian passport with a different spelling of his name?

The violation of the state border is a criminal offense. The issue is not only Lapshin’s visit to the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh area, as the Armenians are trying to present it, but his entry into Baku although he was aware about the violation of the law of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency's Russian News Service

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