Government agencies should not deal with illegal entities, Marina Akhmedova has said

Ethnic diaspora groups should be banned in Russia, Marina Akhmedova, a member of the presidential human rights ouncil, has said amid a flare-up with neighboring Azerbaijan.

Tensions between Moscow and Baku spiked after police raids last week on an alleged organized crime group in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The group is composed of Russian nationals of Azerbaijani origin and is accused of a string of gang assassinations and contract killings dating back to the early 2000s.

Two elderly male suspects died during the police operation, with the preliminary assessment indicating that at least one of them suffered heart failure. The incident sparked outrage in Baku, which accused Moscow of deliberately targeting people of Azerbaijani descent and claimed that the two men had been murdered while in custody.

On Tuesday, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ekaterinburg, Shakhin Shikhlinski, was detained in relation to the case but was swiftly released after questioning, according to his son.

Akhmedova reacted to the development in a post on Telegram on Wednesday, saying "it is time to abolish diasporas" in Russia.

"These are illegal entities. No government agency should have anything to do with them," she wrote.

All such ethnic groups must be prohibited, not only among the Azerbaijani diaspora, the human rights expert insisted.

According to the results of a 2002 census, more than 621,040 people of Azerbaijani descent are currently living in Russia.

On Monday, Azerbaijani police raided the offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, with a court in Baku ordering a four-month pre-trial detention of two Russian journalists who hold senior positions in the news agency. The Azerbaijani authorities claimed that the outlet has been operating "through illegal financing" - allegations which Sputnik has dismissed as "absurd."

Baku has also arrested eight other Russian nationals, accusing them of being members of a group involved in cybercrime and the trafficking of drugs from Iran. Russian media, however, have identified two of the suspects as IT specialists, while describing another one as a tourist.

READ MORE: Moscow-Baku tensions: What is known so far

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Wednesday that the Azerbaijani authorities have not yet provided Moscow's consular staff with access to the detained Russians.

She advised Russian citizens who are planning trips to Azerbaijan to "take the current situation into account."

Zakharova also noted that there is a "strategic partnership" between Moscow and Baku, urging Azerbaijan to take steps aimed at returning bilateral ties to the proper level.

(RT.com)