Photo: TASS

Russia continues to follow he fate of blogger Alexander Lapshin extradited to Azerbaijan, Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova told reporters today.

“We’ll keep following the fate of the Russian citizen,” Zakharova said, reminding that the Foreign Ministry had earlier expressed its stance on the extradition in a statement.

“This issue and all other issues in bilateral relations should be solved in due course no matter which countries we are talking about,” Zakharova said.

“All issues connected with the fate of Russian nationals are a priority for the Russian Federation,” she stressed.

Alexander Lapshin, who holds Russian, Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship, was handed over to Baku on February 7 and escorted out of the airport by law enforcement agents.

On December 15, 2016, police in Belarus detained Alexander Lapshin, a popular travel blogger, for his prior visits to Nagorno Karabakh and for his criticism of the Aliyev regime.

On 20 January 2017 the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus decided to have Lapshin extradited to Azerbaijan.  An appeal to the ruling was denied by Minsk City Court.

The Supreme Court of Belarus ruled to leave the decision of the Prosecutor General’s office on Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan in force.