Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – A senior Russian lawmaker known for his controversial statements has protested Russian Ambassador in Baku Vladimir Dorokhin’s response to a recent incident involving an executive of the Echo of Moscow radio station.

Sergei Buntman, Echo of Moscow’s first assistant editor-in-chief, recently paid an unauthorized business trip to Nagorno Karabakh, an Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani region where ethnic Armenians are running a self-proclaimed republic. In response, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry declared Buntman "persona non grata" and barred him from coming to Azerbaijan. Ambassador Dorokhin commented that "blacklisting" Buntman was Azerbaijan’s sovereign right.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deputy chairman of the Russian lower house of parliament and the leader of Russian Liberal Democratic Party, informed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of his stance.

Zhirinovsky wrote in a letter to Minister Lavrov that he was not trying to curtail Baku’s rights in any shape or form, but the Russian Foreign Ministry should take a tougher line on the issue.

"An independent state reserves the right to decide who can or cannot enter its territory," Zhirinovsky said. "But we expect a Russian ambassador to defend the rights of his country’s citizens. The point we are concerned with is the stance of the Russian foreign ministry official. We believe that Russia’s ambassadors abroad should defend, not infringe upon their citizens’ rights."

Echo of Moscow’s editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said he planned to appeal to President Ilham Aliyev over the ban on Buntman’s entry to Azerbaijan.

"A journalist has the right to obtain information and Echo of Moscow will continue to exercise this right in the future," he said.

Nagorno Karabakh has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a 1994 cease-fire ended a war that killed an estimated 30,000 people and ousted up to one million Azerbaijanis from their homes. Years of OSCE-brokered peace talks have brought few tangible results.