Details added (first version posted at 17:03)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
The issue of blogger Alexander Lapshin should be resolved by Russia and Azerbaijan in line with regular procedures, said the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
She was answering a question at a briefing on Feb. 9 on how Lapshin’s case may affect the Azerbaijan-Russia relations, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
“All the questions arising in bilateral relations, regardless of which countries are concerned, should be resolved in line with regular procedures. Everything having to do with Russian citizens is certainly a priority for us, but I want to repeat that all this should be resolved in line with regular procedures,” she said.
Russia will continue engaging in Lapshin’s case, Zakharova added.
Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of several countries and has had a criminal conspiracy with Armenians living in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He also illegally visited these territories.
Lapshin is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012. In order to promote the illegal regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Lapshin presented Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh as an “independent state” on his social media account, and supporting the “independence” of the unrecognized regime he made public incitements aimed at violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.