Video Monday — Talking Israel, Iran and Ukraine
Mind you, I am not complaining… I had a busy day flapping my gums. The primary focus remains on the aftermath of the Iran / Israel war. But there is action on a new front– Azerbaijan– that I believe represents another Western-supported effort to create trouble for Russia by exploiting ethnic tensions between Russia and the Azeris.
On Monday, Azerbaijan detained Russian journalists and raided the offices of Russia’s state-funded news outlet Sputnik in Baku. The immediate trigger was the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis during a Russian police operation in Yekaterinburg last week against an organized crime group in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, composed of Russian nationals of Azerbaijani origin. Azerbaijani authorities denounced the “brutal killings” and accused Russian law enforcement of acting with ethnic bias.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that Sputnik had continued operating in the country through “unauthorized funding” even after its accreditation was revoked in February 2025. During the raid, police detained several individuals, including Sputnik’s local editor-in-chief and director, and Azerbaijani media reported that some of those detained were suspected of being connected to Russian intelligence.
The Azerbaijani government also canceled Russian cultural events and withdrew from scheduled bilateral meetings with Russia in protest of the treatment of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia. Russia, in response, summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador and condemned the detentions as “unfriendly actions” and “illegal detention of Russian journalists”.
But there may be more to this story — Azerbaijan is used by both the Mossad and the CIA for clandestine operations against Iran. Israel used Azerbaijan air space to launch missiles and drones into Iran during the latest conflict. So, is this flare-up between Russia and Azerbaijan just about the Yekaterinburg incident, or is Azerbaijan now making a turn to the West in order to put pressure on Russia? I think it is the latter. I don’t believe in coincidence. Keep your eye on Azerbaijan.
Monday morning started with my regularly scheduled chats with Nima and with Judge Napolitano. As soon as I signed off with the Judge, I jumped on Deep Dive with Danny Davis, who just returned from a week vacation in Europe. The final video posted below comes courtesy of Randy Credico… Andrei Martyanov and I appeared on his WBAI radio show last Friday and we spent the hour talking primarily about the war in Ukraine.