By Dmitry Antonov and Nailia Bagirova
MOSCOW/BAKU (Reuters) -The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged Azerbaijan to restore its ties with Moscow to a level befitting “strategic cooperation” after saying that certain forces were trying to wreck the two countries’ relationship.
The diplomatic row began last week after two ethnic Azerbaijanis died during police raids in Russia and escalated after Baku then arrested two Russian state journalists and a further roughly 15 more Russians on suspicion of drug trafficking and cybercrime.
Azerbaijan says post-mortems conducted in Baku on the two men who died in Russia showed they were beaten to death – though Moscow said one of them had died from heart problems – and that authorities in Baku had opened their own investigation.
Relations have been under strain since late last year, when 38 people were killed after an Azerbaijani airliner headed from Baku to southern Russia crashed. Baku says the crash was the result of accidental damage caused by fire from air defence units in Russia.
Nemat Avazov, the head of Baku’s investigation into the accident, told reporters on Wednesday that his team would release its findings in the coming days.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow had been cultivating its relationship with Baku for many years based on mutual respect and suggested unknown actors were now trying to use the situation to “warm up their hands” – a Russian phrase meaning to enrich oneself.
“Just don’t let them get burned,” she told Sputnik Radio in an interview. “Because for us, for the two peoples, friendship relations are extremely important. And those who want to spoil them should think carefully about what they are doing.”
She later said in a news briefing that Baku should restore its ties with Russia, complaining that Moscow did not have any consular access to its detained citizens.
“We, of course, call on the Azerbaijani side to take measures to return our ties to the level of interstate relations as set out in official documents. Let me remind you that this is the level of strategic cooperation,” she said.
The Kremlin has said Russia aims to negotiate the release of its journalists, who have been charged with fraud and other crimes and placed in pre-trial detention in Baku.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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