Media: Editor of Sputnik Azerbaijan placed under house arrest

The Chief Editor of the Sputnik Azerbaijan news agency, Yevgeny Belousov, has been placed under house arrest, following a decision by the Khatai District Court in Baku.

The court approved a petition in Belousov’s case, resulting in the restriction on his freedom, Caliber.Az reports citing Günün Səsi.

Earlier, the agency’s Executive Director, Igor Kartavykh, was released from custody. He subsequently left Azerbaijan and travelled to Russia.

Earlier this year, Azerbaijani authorities launched an investigation into the activities of Sputnik Azerbaijan, the local branch of Russia’s state-run Russia Today agency.

The move followed a government decision to limit the number of Russian state media correspondents in the country to match the number of Azerbaijani correspondents in Russia.

Although Sputnik Azerbaijan had been ordered to cease operations, reports later revealed that it continued functioning in violation of the suspension order. 

This led to a special police operation on June 30 at the outlet’s Baku office and the subsequent detention of its head and editor-in-chief over alleged collaboration with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

By Aghakazim Guliyev