"Operation" Lapshin

The loud scandal around blogger Alexander Lapshin, which began after his arrest and conviction, entered a new phase and became even louder, even after his release.

Political dividends, acquired by Baku as a result of punishment of a person who questioned the territorial integrity of the country, were brought to nothing. This happened after the released Lapshin not only denied the allegations that he had asked for pardon, that he recognized the belonging of Karabakh to Azerbaijan and that he committed suicide. On the contrary, he accused the administration of the pre-trial detention center that it was an attempt on him to imitate the attempt of suicide.

Even if Lapshin is lying, this indicates that the operation to punish the "enemy of Azerbaijan" was not thought through to the end and is clearly unfinished.

Doubts about this arose already when this unfortunate blogger at the Baku airport was met by armed to the teeth special forces of the State Security Service. Involuntarily I remembered the shots of the delivery by the Turkish special forces of the leader of the Kurdish terrorists Abdullah Ocalan. All the special forces were in civilian clothes and without weapons, with closed faces.

It is noteworthy that Lapshin did not admit his guilt at court, explaining that he considers himself a tourist, not a politician. At the same time, he said that he was aware of the blame for the illegal border crossing.

That's probably the logical line, beyond the limit which should not be passed. It was naive to believe that if you condemn a person, take a subscription from him or achieve the desired statement, then after liberation he will not refute it.

By the way, there is a rule in the Israeli army: a prisoner who is captured can tell the enemy everything he knows, for this they will not condemn him. The main task in the Israeli army is to preserve the life of a soldier. Apparently, Lapshin is little aware of these rules of Tsakhal.

A separate issue is the suicide attempt in prison after Lapshin was pardoned.

On his Facebook page, he wrote that on September 11, several people broke into his cell, began beating him, and then tried to strangle him. It's possible that he does not speak the truth, and he really tried to hang himself. But then an awkward question arises: why Lapshin had to be hanged, if tomorrow would be freed?

Having got into the hands of "material" in the form of the violator of the border, the owners of this material failed to apply it properly, having received in return a regular and rather popular criticism addressed to them.

But let's say that Lapshin would be treated differently: he was convicted of illegal border crossing and expelled from the country. But before, you would have been introduced to refugees from Khojaly, with the Azerbaijani version of the Karabakh conflict, with the history of the country.

They used to accept Zhirinovsky in the capital, who zealously supported the Armenians, publicly insulted the Azerbaijanis. and what? Did they arrest him? No, they accepted him as an honored guest.

The case with Lapshin is not just a puncture of the investigation and responsible officials. This is an indicator of a systemic problem, unready to communicate with those who do not agree, or are simply not aware of your opinion.

State structures need to work out a program of behavior in relation to such a group of people and draw serious conclusions from the history with Lapshin. The formulation of a "black list" of undesirable people will not go far.

In the meantime, it is necessary to read the blogger's exposures and his caustic remarks about Baku, counting the moral damage caused to the Azerbaijani side.--0--