Moscow hopes that Baku will abandon its discriminatory ethnic policy towards Russian citizens of Armenian nationality, the spokeswoman for Russian MFA Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday.

She drew attention to a large number of posts in social networks, about the discriminatory ethnic policy towards Russian citizens on the part of the Azerbaijani authorities, TASS reported.

Touching upon statistics, she noted that at least 16 cases of entry denial for Russian citizens on ethnic grounds in Azerbaijan were recorded.

“Russian citizens were detained for hours at the airport and then were expelled from the country without specifying official reasons.”

These facts are a gross violation of the rights of Russian citizens as well as are contrary to the spirit of the Russian-Azerbaijani friendship treaty, the Intergovernmental Agreement on visa-free travel and the Declaration of Friendship and Strategic Partnership.

According to her, the Russian side “has repeatedly drawn the attention of the Azerbaijani side to the unacceptability of the current situation.”