By Rashid Shirinov

Russia will continue to protect the legitimate rights of Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years in prison in Baku.

“Today the Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced the Russian citizen Alexander Lapshin to three years of imprisonment. As is known, Lapshin was charged because he visited Nagorno Karabakh,” Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department told RIA Novosti agency on July 20.

“We will continue the work to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Russian citizen given the court verdict. Representatives of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan are in contact with Lapshin and his lawyer,” Russian Foreign Ministry added.

Blogger Lapshin was charged with his illegal visits to the Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani lands and a criminal conspiracy with the Armenians living there. He violated Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.

Helped by his accomplices in the occupied territories, Lapshin paid a number of visits to Azerbaijan’s occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The blogger was arrested in Minsk in late 2016 and transferred to Baku in February 2017.

By the decision of the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, Lapshin will serve his sentence in a general regime colony.