Baku’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Charcoal d’Affaires Peter Volokovik on Saturday to protest what was called the “brutal murders” of two Azerbaijanis during the raid on Friday. The ministry said several others were seriously injured and nine people were arrested, The Moscow Times.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that after Volokovykh was summoned, it “provided the necessary explanation” to Baku. The ministry said those arrested were Russian citizens born in Azerbaijani, accused of “past crimes,” but it did not mention the death.
Police investigators at Yekterinberg said the attack targeted “ethnic crime groups” related to murder between 2001 and 2011. They alleged that they confessed to the crimes of some of the people arrested, but did not give details about the number of arrests.
The Russian commission on Investigation of major crimes later confirmed the deaths of two people during the police attack, saying that the cause of death of one of the individuals appears to be heart failure. Authorities said they were still trying to establish the cause of their second death.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture announced the cancellation of concerts, exhibitions and other events hosted by public and private groups in Russia. It cited what was described as “empirical targets and extrajudicial killings” by Russian law enforcement agencies based on ethnicity.
The Kremlin said it “really regrets” the cancellation of Azerbaijan’s Russian cultural program.
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