Overview

• Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal investigation on July 1 into FSB officers accused of torturing and murdering Azerbaijani detainees
• Prosecutors opened the case after medical examiners determined that Hussein and Sijaddin Safarow suffered internal trauma and multiple fractures during a June 27 raid in Yekaterinburg
• On June 30, Baku detained two individuals identified as FSB agents posing as journalists for the Russian Sputnik portal, charging them with fraud
• Both governments have summoned each other’s ambassadors and threatened reciprocal economic measures, including Azerbaijan’s destruction of Russian imports and Russia’s consideration of trade restrictions on Azerbaijani goods
• Moscow has expressed regret over the deaths but defended its law enforcement actions, while Baku cites the incidents as part of wider discriminatory treatment of its diaspora in Russia