Verliert Putin, wie Aserbaidschaner Russen verhaftet, die Kontrolle über seinen „Hinterhof“?

The scale of Moscow’s loss of standing in the post-Soviet region was highlighted this week when police in neighbouring Azerbaijan arrested the chief editor and the director of the Kremlin-funded Sputnik media agency in Baku, the capital. They were charged with fraud and money laundering. Unconfirmed media reports in Azerbaijan, an oil and gas-rich country that has close ties to Turkey, claimed the men were Russian FSB agents.

Azerbaijani police also arrested more than a dozen Russian nationals on charges that included drug smuggling and cybercrimes. They were brought to court with swollen faces and clothes covered in blood. Some of the men are believed to have fled to Azerbaijan from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

In response, Moscow cautioned its citizens against travelling to Azerbaijan and accused unnamed forces of seeking to foment a rift between the two countries. Such travel warnings have previously been reserved for “unfriendly” countries in the West.

The row between the two former Soviet states erupted in December when Russia was accused by Baku of accidentally shooting down an Azerbaijani passenger plane that was attempting to land in Chechnya, killing 38 people. Putin offered his condolences but refused to acknowledge that Moscow was to blame