Russian law enforcement agencies have claimed that members of the Batalkhadzhin Sufi community were linked to the Caucasus Emirate*, a militant Islamist organisation. Human rights advocates, however, have questioned the allegations, noting that the group effectively ceased to exist more than a decade ago and that publicly available case materials contain little evidence of specific acts of support for militants.
Moscow and Baku are looking for a compromise on resuming the work of the Russian House. This was stated by the head of Rossotrudnichestvo Yevgeny Primakov.
“We have contacted the authorities of the republic several times, and this issue was brought up at various meetings: how can we be registered as a legal entity? We all understand that Rossotrudnichestvo is a federal agency. Can we register a representative office of the federal agency as a local NPO? Legally, this is quite difficult. We were looking for some way to do this with our partners in Azerbaijan. So far, we have not found this way, but it is being discussed,” Primakov noted.
In February, the authorities of Azerbaijan sent the Russian side an official notification about the termination of the activities of the federal agency Rossotrudnichestvo in the country. Earlier, Baku.tv, financed by the Azerbaijani government, accused the Rossotrudnichestvo-controlled Russian House project of spying, calling it a "hotbed of separatism and a nest of espionage." Baku also banned entry into the country of Nikolai Valuev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Tourism Committee, for insults and threats against Azerbaijan.