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Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was convicted and later pardoned by the Azerbaijani authorities for an Artsakh visit, has met with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian in Washington, D.C. 

“In Washington, I chanced to meet with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who appeared to be a surprisingly open and joyful person, devoid of any formalities typical to country leaders,” he described the meeting in a post on Facebook.

To note, President Sarkissian has left for Washington to attend the Folklife Festival 2018 running from 27 June to 8 July.

Travel blogger Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years behind bars in Azerbaijan, was released on 12 September, after being pardoned by the Azerbaijani president. 

Lapshin was sentenced by the Baku Court on Grave Crimes on July 20, 2017 over his visit to Artsakh.

The blogger was detained in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in December 2016 at Baku’s request. He was flown to Baku on February 7 and handed over to the Azerbaijani State Security Service.

Azerbaijani prosecutors launched a criminal case into “repeated public anti-state calls” and what they claimed as “illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border.”

The extradition and persecution against Lapshin was widely slammed by international community as a gross violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of speech and movement.