MOSCOW. – The actions by Azerbaijani and Hungarian authorities run counter to the internationally-agreed efforts—along the lines of the OSCE Minsk Group, first and foremost—toward lessening the tension in the region, reads the Russian MFA’s statement issued in connection with Hungary’s extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan.    

“The statement on granting pardon to Azerbaijani military serviceman R. Safarov and the Hungarian authorities’ decision to extraditing him to Azerbaijan were received with deep concern in Russia, which is an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair along the lines of the settlement of the [Nagorno-]Karabakh conflict.    

We also anticipate for the Co-Chairs to soon make a respective assessment on the created situation,” Russian MFA official representative Alexander Lukashevich’s statement specifically reads.  

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence—and with no expression of either regret or remorse—for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004.

As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon.

And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced on August 31 that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.