Billionaire and former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, sentenced in Baku to 20 years in prison, rejected the legal force of the ruling and dropped his appeal. His family explained that this decision stemmed from the fact that, in their view, the trial was a "staged performance" rather than a proper trial: the hearings were held behind closed doors, without access to independent observers, and the prosecution's motions were ignored. The full text of the verdict was also not released.
Azerbaijan liquidates representative office of Russian media outlet
The representative office of the Russian MIA Rossiya Segodnya (Sputnik) in Azerbaijan has been abolished. This was reported by the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Ayhan Hajizade. He noted that this media structure can receive accreditation for only one correspondent.
Recently, the Azerbaijani authorities sent the Russian side an official notification about the termination of the activities of the federal agency Rossotrudnichestvo in the country. Before this, Baku.tv, financed by the Azerbaijani government, accused the Rossotrudnichestvo-controlled project Russian House of espionage, calling it a "hotbed of separatism and a nest of espionage." Baku also banned entry into the country of the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Tourism Committee Nikolai Valuev for insults and threats against Azerbaijan.
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