Alexander Lapshin, the Russian-Israeli blogger convicted and later released in Azerbaijan over a visit to the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic, has met with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian in Washington.

The blogger shared details of the meeting on Facebook, describing it as a “pleasant surprise”.

“As I was in Washington, I chanced to meet with the president of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, who turned out a surprisingly open and joyful personality,” he said, adding that president looked to be devoid of all the formalities normally typical to country leaders.

Belarusian law enforcement authorities arrested Lapshin in 2016 based on an earlier request by Azerbaijan (which had included the blogger into its black list for the trip to the second Armenian republic).On February 7 2017, the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Lapshin’s appeal and extradited the him to Baku based on a decision by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Later the same day, Lapshin was flown to the Azerbaijani capital, accompanied by officers of the Belarusian State Security Committee.

The Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced the blogger to three years in prison on July 20.

On September 11 2017, he was pardoned under President Ilham Aliyev’s decree.