The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called the rally at the embassy in Moscow a provocation.

Today in Moscow, a group of leftist activists held a rally at the Azerbaijani embassy. Participants displayed three posters criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities and calling attention to the situation of Russian citizens imprisoned in Azerbaijan.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", at the end of August 2025, three national bolsheviks were detained during a rally near the Azerbaijani consulate. The participants of the rally stated that they were protesting against the strategic alliance of Baku with Ankara, as well as against changes in the energy market, which make Baku a natural competitor to "Gazprom".

The national bolsheviks' rally was reported by the Telegram channel "Direct Action Z", associated with the national-bolshevik movement and the party "Other Russia of E.V. Limonov" 1 .

"Today, August 27, unknown national bolsheviks placed three posters on the facade of the Azerbaijani embassy on Leontievsky Lane in Moscow, dedicated to the Russophobic policy of Aliyev and the lawlessness of Azerbaijani special services: "The KGB tortures, Aliyev covers it up!", "Russian blood on your hands!", "Hands off Russian citizens!", - the channel's message states.

The participants of the rally explained it by the situation surrounding Russian citizens arrested and convicted in Azerbaijan, as well as the criminal cases initiated by the Azerbaijani authorities against the leading TV channel "Moscow 24" Ivan Knyazev, political consultant Semyon Uralov, and advisor to the Russian Minister of Transport Alexey Chadaev.

According to the organizers of the rally, Baku is consistently pursuing an anti-Russian policy. "Eight of our citizens have been imprisoned in Azerbaijan for over a year, where they are subjected to torture. The media controlled by Aliyev openly support Ukraine and demonize the Russian army. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani servicemen who killed six Russian peacekeepers in the village of Dzhanyatag and shot down a Russian helicopter have not been held accountable, while Azerbaijani diasporas continue to conduct shadow business in Russia," the message states.

The statement separately assesses the fact of the wanted notice for Ivan Knyazev, Semyon Uralov, and Alexey Chadaev. "Instead of standing up for them, the Russian Foreign Ministry began to justify itself to Russophobes. Chadaev, the advisor to the Minister of Transport, was even dismissed from his position to please the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office," the Telegram channel writes.

Several hours after the information about the rally appeared, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued an official statement. The agency called the placement of posters an "unacceptable provocation" and stated that what happened could be aimed at artificially escalating relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.

The Foreign Ministry also linked the rally to what it calls a "dirty and biased campaign" against Azerbaijan in some Russian media. Baku called on Russian law enforcement agencies to legally assess what happened, conduct an investigation, and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

"We expect that the Russian side, in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, will fully fulfill its obligations to ensure the security of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its staff, as well as to prevent any provocative actions that may hinder the normal functioning of the diplomatic mission," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's statement reads.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Moscow, Bakhtiyar Gasanov, was deported from Russia to Azerbaijan. Earlier, Gasanov tried to appeal the decision on his expulsion, but the court rejected the appeal.

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably deteriorated after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board, flying from Baku to Grozny, in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. More details can be read in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Aviation disaster of flight Baku-Grozny" and in the article "Geopolitical confrontation: what the AZAL plane crash led to". A new round of deterioration in relations between the two countries has been ethnic sweeps in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan. Baku accuses the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, while footage of the harsh detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, as stated in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Crisis in Azerbaijan-Russia relations".