Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said Yerevan does not rule out taking its dispute with Russia over the management of the South Caucasus Railway to an international court if the issue cannot be resolved through negotiations. At the same time, he stressed that the Armenian authorities hope to settle the matter through talks.
A court in Yekaterinburg has extended the arrest of Shahin Shikhlinsky, the former head of the city's Azerbaijani diaspora, until December 30. He is accused of attempting to murder a businessman in 2010.
On July 1, Shahin Shikhlinsky was detained by special forces. He was in a car that accidentally struck a security officer, with his son driving. The elder Shikhlinsky was later released after being questioned as a witness in the Safarov brothers' case. During the court hearing, the younger Shikhlinsky stated that the collision with the security officer was accidental and that he regretted the incident. However, he was also arrested, and later, his father.
It is noteworthy that persecution of Azerbaijani diaspora leaders has become more frequent in Russia. For example, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Chelyabinsk region, Arshad Khankishiyev, was stripped of his Russian citizenship. Yusif Khalilov, the leader of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Voronezh, was also arrested. Russian authorities also stripped Bakhtiyar Hasanov, head of the Council of National and Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis, of his citizenship.