"I am grateful to our diplomats and our embassy in Baku for their help and support. I feel fine and am glad to be back home," Belousov said.
On June 30, Azerbaijan groundlessly detained seven employees of Sputnik Azerbaijan, which is part of the Rossiya Segodnya media group. Sputnik Azerbaijan desk chief Igor Kartavykh and editor-in-chief Yevgeny Belousov were detained for four months. The Rossiya Segodnya media group called on Azerbaijan to release its employees.
On October 10, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev told Sputnik that Kartavykh, who was in Baku, had his pretrial detention changed to house arrest. On October 19, Kartavykh returned to Moscow after being released from custody.