Alexander Lapshin became the hostage of interstate games in the post-Soviet area.

Political analyst Alexander Zinker stated the aforementioned, commenting on the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin from Belarus to Azerbaijan.

“Blogger Alexander Lapshin, who has the citizenship of the Russian Federation and Israel, was on Tuesday brought from Minsk to Baku by charter flight in accordance with the decision on extradition adopted by the Belarusian authorities. He may face 5-8 years in prison for the crimes stipulated by the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. Both the Israeli and Russian authorities were against the extradition. On the Israeli side, Deputy FM Tzipi Hotovely and Knesset MP Ksenia Svetlova tried to agree on the blogger’s extradition,” the analyst said.

“As far as I know, all the parties to this conflict—which has gone too far now—are trying to get out of it saving face. Official Baku didn’t wish to take a step back and merely retract its request but is ready to pardon Lapshin if the latter turns to President Aliyev with such a request. Israel, which proposed to its Azerbaijani colleagues different options of solving this situation will not calm down unless the Israeli citizen is set free. As to the agreement that Lapshin will not serve his sentence in an Azerbaijani jail, it does exist, as far as I know. The Russian side seems to also exert certain efforts towards releasing the Russian citizen.

I think, Alexander Lapshin became the hostage of interstate games in the post-Soviet area. It is quite hard to imagine such a thing happen in the modern civilized world. Most likely a bargaining is underway now, Baku trying to get certain preferences for Lapshin. The conflict will be solved but as the old joke says “Spoons were found but the sediment remained something.” The rifts formed in the relations between former USSR countries and Israel will at best have to be re-fixed, but they may also go deeper,” Ziker concluded.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan. In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan, but with a Ukrainian passport. Subsequently, he issued several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. Afterward, the Azerbaijani authorities issued an international search for this famous blogger. And on December 15, 2016, he was detained in the Belarus capital city of Minsk, and based on this international search.

On January 26, the Minsk city court dismissed the complaint of blogger Alexander Lapshin over the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan. 

The Supreme Court of Belarus on Tuesday dismissed the complaints filed in the case of blogger Alexander Lapshin.

According to the experts and human rights defenders, Lapshin’s case may become a horrible precedent limiting the freedom of speech of foreigners and freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.

Blogger Alexander Lapshin was brought to Baku Tuesday evening.