Azerbaijan's detention and expulsion of Russian citizens on a national basis is a gross violation of their rights, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a weekly briefing when asked about complaints on non-admission of people of Armenian nationality to Baku.

The border service of Azerbaijan has a record of denying entry to citizens of various countries due to their Armenian heritage.

"I have seen a large number of messages, including on social networks. Such incidents happened during the holidays, we have registered similar cases earlier too," Zakharova was quoted as saying by Sputnik Armenia.

"We regularly raised the issue to the Azerbaijani side, maintaining that such cases are becoming a tradition, unfortunately a wrong one.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly drawn the attention of the Azerbaijani side to the unacceptability of the situation. We have demanded that they stop this practice - both detentions and expulsions. It is incompatible with the friendly relations between the countries," the spokeswoman said.

"The Russian side has received assurances from the Azerbaijani authorities that the situation will be rectified."