Rossotrudnichestvo has assessed Azerbaijani spying accusations and its closure of the Russian project Russian House as "stupid". The corresponding statement was made by the head of the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation Yevgeny Primakov. He noted with regret that members of the Russian community in Azerbaijan did not support Russia during the aggravation of relations between the two countries.
"I was very tempted to file a lawsuit against those media outlets in Azerbaijan that brought forward accusations of espionage activities by the Russian House. But we decided to show wisdom and restraint and not to aggravate the situation. "Unfortunately, this did not help much," lamented the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, who is the grandson of a major Soviet and Russian politician, Chairman of the Russian Government, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Yevgeny Primakov.
In addition, Primakov Jr. said that Russian citizens living in Azerbaijan who did not support their country did so "under duress, because they also have Azerbaijani citizenship."
"Nevertheless, we would like our compatriots to show more clearly demonstrated sympathy towards their motherland. I believe that Russia deserves that our compatriots, while maintaining understandable loyalty to their own states, still treat Russia well," he said in an interview with RBC.
Recall that in February 2025, the Azerbaijani authorities sent the Russian side an official notification about the termination of Rossotrudnichestvo's activities in the country. Baku accused the Russian House project under its control of espionage, calling it a "hotbed of separatism and a nest of espionage."
Tensions in relations between Russia and Azerbaijan arose after a high-profile air crash that occurred in late 2024. On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijani passenger airliner Embraer 190, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau. It is known that there were 67 people on board, of which 42 were citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 were Russian, 6 were Kazakh, and 3 were Kyrgyz. 29 passengers survived.
Moscow hid the reasons for the plane crash for a long time. However, the dominant version was that it came under fire from Russian air defense systems during an attack by Ukrainian drones on the territory of Chechnya. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev also holds this opinion, in connection with which he demanded that the Russian Federation admit guilt, punish the perpetrators and pay compensation.
