Sputnik Azerbaijan senior staff arrested over alleged collusion with Russian intelligence

Azerbaijani law enforcement authorities have detained two senior figures from the Sputnik Azerbaijan editorial office as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged illegal activities linked to the agency.

Those taken into custody are Igor Kartavykh, head of the editorial office of Sputnik Azerbaijan, and Yevgeny Belousov, editor-in-chief, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

The detentions come in the wake of a special operation conducted by Azerbaijani police on June 30 at the Baku office of the media outlet, which operates as a local branch of Russia's state-run Russia Today agency.

Kartavykh and Belousov are reportedly accused of collaborating with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), a charge that, if substantiated, could carry significant diplomatic and legal consequences.

The move comes following earlier decisions to suspend the agency’s operations. Despite the official suspension, it has now been revealed that Sputnik Azerbaijan continued functioning with employees still showing up for work.

In February 2025, Caliber.Az obtained exclusive information revealing Azerbaijan’s decision to rebalance the presence of foreign media outlets operating within the country. This initiative specifically targeted the operations of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a branch of the Russian MIA "Russia Today" (RT), and the BBC’s Azerbaijani service.

To address a disparity in media representation between Azerbaijan and Russia, the Azerbaijani government mandated that the number of Russian state media correspondents working in Azerbaijan be equal to the number of Azerbaijani state media correspondents operating in Russia. Currently, this translates to just one correspondent each.

Sputnik Azerbaijan, which employed approximately 40 staff members in Baku, was ordered to close its branch. RT’s activities in Azerbaijan were to be limited to a single correspondent operating under Azerbaijani law and the bilateral agreement on media correspondents signed in 2001.

Despite these earlier restrictions, recent reports indicate that Sputnik Azerbaijan continued some level of operation, prompting the authorities to conduct a special police operation and take control of the agency’s Baku office.

By Vafa Guliyeva