Armenian from Russia Arrested in Baku during Formula 1

A citizen of Russia Marat Ueldanov (Galustyan) has been in the detention center of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan for 1.5 months.

According to the Russian press, he is an employee of Do / Co - an Austrian company, which dealt with the catering during the race Formula 1 in Baku.

According to the prisoner's sister Marianne Galustyan, Marat took his wife's name and his passport contains this name. He has repeatedly visited Azerbaijan and particularly in 2015, worked for the first European Games.

Arriving in Baku on June 6, he did not phone from there. Later it became known that he and his partner Elena Makarenko were arrested on June 9. After 15 days, Helen was released and she returned to Moscow.

The detainee's sister also said that Marat is a native of Baku, where he was born in 1982, and apparently someone said about his Armenian origin.

The Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan has offered the relatives of the arrested to treat with understanding the specifics of the country, where "an Armenian origin makes it extremely difficult to protect him." This is stated in the answer from the head of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan in response to the request by the sister of the arrested.

According to the same source, Ueldanov (Galustyan) is accused of illegal possession and transportation of drugs in large quantities (Article 234.4.3). However the prisoner’s female partner claims that he was detained on suspicion of espionage.

The attempt to get a comment on this issue from the State Security Service of Azerbaijan failed. -02D-