Deaths in custody, media offices raided, and beaten and bloodied suspects paraded in court — relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, once considered close, have sharply deteriorated in recent days amid a series of high-profile incidents.

Azerbaijan has been pushing back against Russian dominance in the Caucasus region, seeking closer ties with Turkey and Israel.

By Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou BAKU (Reuters) -Post-mortems on two Azerbaijani brothers who died in Russian police custody have shown that they were beaten to death, authorities in the South Caucasus country said on Tuesday as tensions rose sharply between Moscow and Baku.