Media reports say Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that Azerbaijan banned Nikolai Valuyev, a member of the State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament), from entering the country. A move reportedly comes after he suggested Azerbaijan uses diaspora groups to engage in criminal activities.
Azerbaijan’s First Channel News cited Azerbaijani MFA spox as saying that Valuyev has been banned from entering Azerbaijan due to “insulting statements and threats” that he allegedly made against Azerbaijan and its people.
Hajizada reportedly stressed that this is not the first time that Russian legislators have been put on the Azerbaijani list of persona non grata. Hajizada recalled that Russian lawmakers Konstantin Zatulin and Vitaly Milonov had previously been included in this list.
“The offensive statements against Azerbaijan and our people made by Nikolai Valuyev… and his threatening remarks against our country are absolutely unacceptable. Due to the statements made by this lawmaker against Azerbaijan, his name has been added to the list of individuals banned from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan,” says a statement released by Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, Nikolai Valuyev, who is a former professional boxer, slammed the closure of the Russian House in Baku by the Azerbaijani authorities. Also, the politician called on the Russian authorities to pay attention to the Azerbaijani diaspora in Russia. According to him, such organizations operate for the sake of money, and they do not always operate legally.
Baku ordered the closure of the local branch of Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian state-funded cultural diplomacy agency, last week, citing its “lack of legal registration.” In response, Valuyev suggested that Moscow could target ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia and their financial transactions.
“Their main tools of influence in Russia are diasporas,” the lawmaker wrote on Telegram. “This entire crowd should be put through the legal filter. Illegal migration, tax evasion, corporate raids and other ‘interesting’ activities will come to light soon enough.”
