Azerbaijan has banned Russian State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Valuev from entering the country after he accused Baku of using Azerbaijani diaspora in Russia for criminal activities.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizade said Baku made the decision after Valuev’s “offensive statements against Azerbaijan and our people.”
“His threatening remarks against our country are absolutely unacceptable,” Hajizade said in a statement.
A former world heavyweight boxing champion, Valuev is the third Russian lawmaker to be banned from entering Azerbaijan.
Hajizadeh noted in his statement that all three Russian MPs declared persona non grata “regretfully” belong to the ruling United Russia party.
Valuev made his comments after Azerbaijan last week ordered the closure of the so-called Russia House, a local branch of Russia’s state-run cultural diplomacy agency Rossotrudnichestvo.
The Russian lawmaker wrote on his Telegram channel that while Azerbaijan does not have a similar institution in Russia, it has a diaspora that has "nothing to do with cultural exchange, but money."
"To put it tactfully, this money is not always legal.... isn't it time to a take a closer look at [the diaspora]?" he wrote.
SEE ALSO: Anger Toward Russia Grows After Deadly Azerbaijani Plane CrashThe Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has said the Russian cultural center lacked legal registration and it expected Moscow to take steps to rectify it. Moscow says it has ”repeatedly” requested Baku to help with the registration but has not received a response.
Local media, citing unnamed sources, said Russia House in Baku was closed due to alleged involvement in intelligence gathering.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia have soured since the December 25 downing of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 near the Kazakh city of Aqtau by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the disaster, which killed 38 and injured 29 people, and said air defenses were activated in the Chechnya region to repel an alleged Ukrainian drone attack.