Moscow: Russian Embassy in Minsk takes all legal steps to protect  Alexander Lapshin rights and interests

ArmInfo.The Embassy of Russian Federation takes all the steps necessary to protect Alexander Lapshin's legal rights and interests, the department of media and  press of the Russian Foreign Ministry  informed ArmInfo  due to the  decision of Minsk to detent Alexander Lapshin.

"Russian side in informed about the decision on Israeli and Russian citizen Alexander  Lapshin  extradition taken by  A.  Stuk, the Deputy  General  prosecutor of Belarus, and all the necessary steps are taken to  protect his rights,' the answer of Russian foreign ministry reads.   

Alexander Stuk, the Deputy General Prosecutor  of Belarus, after  reviewing Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's office request to  extradite Alexander Lapshin, a famous blogg  writer  and the citizen  of Russia and Israel, decided to satisfy the request mentioned. 

To remind, in the middle of December the citizen of the Russian   Federation Alexander Lapshin has been arrested in the Republic of   Belarus with the purpose of extradition on the demand of Azerbaijan   for visiting Nagorno- Karabakh and making notes about those   visitations in his blog. Lapshin is included in Azerbaijan's black   list for visiting Karabakh and he was forbidden to enter Azerbaijan.    However, in June 2015 Lapshin arrived in Azerbaijan via Georgia with   his Ukrainian passport. After that Azerbaijan put him on wanted list   for violation of the law on state border and migration code of the   country.  General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus informed earlier   that the issue of extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan is being studied  but no decision has been made yet.   To note, Sergey Lavrov, the  Russian Foreign Minister stated at the  annual press conference in  Moscow, commenting the detention of  Russian-Israeli blogger  Alexander Lapshin in Minsk due to  Azerbaijan's request for his visit  to Nagorno Karabakh.  "Russia is  against criminalization of  journalists or simply private persons visiting any region", he said.  "Second, we are against extradition of  Russian nationals arrested in  any country, to third countries. We had  consular contact with  Lapshin, we know that he is also an Israeli  citizen and Israeli  diplomats had contact with him as well. We will  take all the steps  to solve this situation within the respect to all  the rights of  Russian citizen, which is also an Israeli citizen,"  Lavrov  accentuated