ArmInfo. Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin, who was earlier detained in Minsk upon Baku's demand, has apologized to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in the written form, according to lawyer Ara Kazaryan, the head of the working group set up to defend Lapshin.
RIA Novosti quotes Kazaryan as saying: "He has really begged Aliyev's pardon, but only for insulting him. Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are not mentioned in the letter."
In the meantime, Israel's Consul to Belarus Yulia Rachinski-Spivakova said that in her presence Lapshin signed "the letter addressed to the President of Azerbaijan, in which he apologizes for his actions". She added that the diplomatic mission of Israel coordinates all actions with the Russian Embassy because Lapshin is also a Russian citizen. "We are against the extradition of the blog writer. We consider that he should be released".
To note, on January 20, General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus made a decision to fulfill the request of Azerbaijan's General Prosecutor's Office on extradition of Russian and Israeli citizen, well-known blog writer Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreign Ministry has told ArmInfo that the Russian Embassy in Minsk is taking all measures to protect the rights and interests of the Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin.
To remind, in the middle of December the citizen of the Russian Federation Alexander Lapshin has been arrested in the Republic of Belarus with the purpose of extradition on the demand of Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh and making notes about those visitations in his blog. Lapshin is included in Azerbaijan's black list for visiting Karabakh and he was forbidden to enter Azerbaijan. However, in June 2015 Lapshin arrived in Azerbaijan via Georgia with his Ukrainian passport. After that Azerbaijan put him on wanted list for violation of the law on state border and migration code of the country. To note, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister stated at the annual press conference in Moscow, commenting the detention of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin in Minsk due to Azerbaijan's request for his visit to Nagorno Karabakh. "Russia is against criminalization of journalists or simply private persons visiting any region", he said. "Second, we are against extradition of Russian nationals arrested in any country, to third countries. We had consular contact with Lapshin, we know that he is also an Israeli citizen and Israeli diplomats had contact with him as well. We will take all the steps to solve this situation within the respect to all the rights of Russian citizen, which is also an Israeli citizen," Lavrov accentuated.