MOSCOW

Azerbaijan on Thursday said it terminated operations of the Russian House, the Russian information and cultural center in Baku.

Moscow was informed about the decision on Feb. 3, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizada said in a statement.

"The activities of such organizations in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan are regulated in accordance with national legislation, the principle of reciprocity between countries, and the requirements of agreements reached on a bilateral basis.

"After the Russian side was informed that the Russian Information and Cultural Center – 'Russian House,' the representative office of “Rossotrudnichestvo” in Azerbaijan, did not have registration as a legal entity and the organization has been seriously violating Azerbaijani legislation, a note verbal was conveyed to the Russian side on February 3, 2025, terminating the activities of 'Russian House'," he said.

Based on the decision, Baku expects the Russian side to take the relevant measures in this direction, Hajizada added.

In a separate statement, Evgeny Primakov, the head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation or Rossotrudnichestvo, a supervising organization for the Russian House, confirmed recieving the notification.

"So far, we can only confirm that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry sent a note to our Foreign Ministry. It says that our representative office, the Russian information and Cultural Center, which is commonly called the Russian House, must be registered as a legal entity under local law," he said.

The document also contains the call to stop the activities of the cultural center, since it is not registered, Primakov added.

He said Russia repeatedly appealed to Azerbaijani authorities asking to help with registration, but these calls remained unanswered.