Authorities in Baku have detained the head editors of Russian news agency Sputnik after conducting searches at the outlet’s office on Monday. The arrests come amid escalating tensions between the two countries, following a Russian police crackdown on suspected Azerbaijani gangs.

The agency has confirmed that the head of the editorial office Igor Kartavykh and Editor-in-Chief Evgeny Belousov were detained during the raid. According to local media reports, the journalists have been accused of being agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Sputnik has described the allegations as “absurd.”

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