Moscow Questions 'Allied Ties' With Belarus After Russian Blogger's Extradition

The Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concern Wednesday over a Belarusian court's ruling to extradite Russian national and blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan, saying this was not in the spirit of the states' alliance.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A Belarusian court ruled on Tuesday to extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan, where he is wanted for allegedly violating border control rules by travelling to the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh using a Ukrainian passport.

"The Russian side is deeply upset by this decision which is not in the spirit of the allied relations between Russia and Belarus," the ministry’s statement read.

Russia pledged to do everything in its power to bring the blogger back. "We are bent on taking every measure to ensure rights and interests of the Russian citizen in order to reunite him with his family as soon as possible," the Foreign Ministry said.

In mid-December 2016, popular travel blogger Lapshin wrote that he had been detained in Minsk on the request of Azerbaijan, where he was included in a black list for a visit to the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh without consent of the Azerbaijani authorities. After the visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, he had entered Azerbaijan through Georgia using a Ukrainian passport. Baku accused the blogger of violation of country's legislation and put him on an international wanted list.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also commented on the extradition and said that all required measures to protect blogger Alexander Lapshin are taken.