Blogger Alexander Lapshin met with President Armen Sarkissian of Armenia, in Washington, D.C.

“In Washington, I got acquainted with President of Armenia Armen Sargsyan,” Lapsin wrote, in particular, on Facebook. “A surprisingly open, cheerful man, and without any ‘formalities’ characteristic of a top official.”

In late 2016, Israeli, Russian, and Ukrainian citizen blogger Alexander Lapshin was detained in Belarus, and based on his international search by Azerbaijan. Baku had “blacklisted” him for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

Subsequently, Belarus extradited Lapshin to Azerbaijan, and a court in capital city Baku sentenced him to three years in prison.

But on September 11, 2017, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev signed an executive order of granting pardon to this blogger.

Alexander Lapshin left Azerbaijan on September 14 and went to Israel.