Vestnik Kavkaza continues informing about the visit of blogger Ilia Varlamov to Azerbaijan, who has recently returned.
His tour was organized within the project “Unknown Caucasus”, reflecting historic and modern aspects of the Caucasus. Visual collections will be an instrument to fulfill the goal. Trend supported photography of places in Baku.
Ilia Varlamov’s LJ had over 200 comments from Azerbaijani locals in just a few hours after the post appeared last night. Almost all comments stated development of Baku.
Ilia spent his last day in Azerbaijan at the Bibi-Eybat Mosque. He commented that it was built in the 1990s and resembles the same mosque built by Sharvanshah Abu-l-Fath Farruhzad in the 13th century and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
The blogger noted preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest. He also visited the local subway, noting the low price (8 rubles) for tickets and made photos, despite prohibition of photography.
Varlamov visited a carpet shop. His final photo session took place at a local bazaar. The blogger noted “amazing pomegranates” and even caviar. He visited a local restaurant and called it the best Georgian restaurant in Baku.
In his last post in LJ, the blogger thanked Vahid and Vestnik Kavkaza for organizing the tour.
Ilia Varlamov is a well-known photo-blogger, nicknamed zyalt in his Live Journal page. He is a human rights activist and organizer of the project “A country without stupidity”. He founded the “Glass Screw” prize in 2011.
According to December 2, 2011, the blogger had 40943 subscribers on his Live Journal account, becoming the top 6. He launched the Ridus online media project in September 2011.
Varlamov’s nick is Zyalt in the blog and varlamov on Twitter. Live Journal is often used as a source of information and illustrations of events. Varlamov became famous for reflecting the work of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a freelance photographer.
Varlamov won the ROTOR contest as Blogger of the Year in December 2011.
