By Tass
MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are those of strategic allies, and certain forces resent that, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Soloviev Live TV show.
“We must remember that they (Moscow-Baku relations – TASS) maintain relations of strategic allies. And, certainly, there are forces who resent that,” she said.
According to Zakharova, the relationship between the two countries reflects “a period in time when we were part of one state.” “This involves a deep history of our cooperation, contacts between people, and historic challenges that we countered,” she said.
The allied relations “provoke a feeling of anger and a desire to impede them among certain forces,” Zakharova continued. “We must prevent this from happening,” she emphasized.
On June 28, the Russian Investigative Committee’s department in the Sverdlovsk Region said that local law enforcement agencies had dismantled an ethnic criminal group involved in murders in Yekaterinburg between 2001 and 2011. Eight suspects were taken into custody as part of the investigation into the case.
According to preliminary data, one of the suspects died from heart failure. The cause of death of the second is being established. The bodies were transported from Yekaterinburg to Baku and, after a forensic examination, were buried in Azerbaijan.
Baku lodged a protest against the actions of Russian law enforcement officers and subsequently canceled cultural and other events involving Russian participation. Russian journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov, along with eight other Russian citizens, were detained and placed in custody for four months in the Azerbaijani capital.
The two countries exchanged notes of protest over each other’s actions, and diplomats were summoned by their foreign ministries.