UPD: Seven of the 11 Russians detained in Azerbaijan turned out to be IT specialists from Russia, found "Agency"*. Only one of the identified has a criminal past in Russia — 40-year-old entrepreneur Igor Zabolotskikh from Izhevsk. In 2020, he was prosecuted for organizing underground casinos.
At the same time, as human rights activist Arif Yunusov told "Echo", most of the Russians arrested in Azerbaijan have not yet been provided with lawyers. According to him, Russian citizens are in Detention Center No. 1 in the village of Kurdakhani on the outskirts of Baku. Only four of them have lawyers, for the rest, defenders are "being sought".
Meanwhile, in Yekaterinburg, the eighth suspect in the 2001-2011 murders case — Aziz Abasov — was arrested. Before this, as the Telegram channel "Caution, News" explains, the investigation could not petition for the arrest of these two defendants, as they were in the hospital after being detained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the deterioration of relations with the Azerbaijani authorities, reported that "the root cause was the work on solving the crime, including against Azerbaijani citizens", without discussing the death of two detained Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani prosecutor's office stated that they died from beatings.
Regarding the detention and beating of Russian IT specialists in Baku, Peskov assured that the Kremlin "paid attention to all the details", without going into details. Peskov also said that the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin and the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Kamran Aliyev "are in constant contact" and "are dealing with issues that seem problematic".
Yesterday in Baku, a court arrested eight Russians suspected of drug smuggling from Iran and cybercrimes. It is known that at least four of the eight arrested moved to Azerbaijan after the start of mobilization — in the fall of 2022. They appeared in court with bruises on their faces and signs of beatings.
One of them turned out to be 38-year-old native of Arkhangelsk Valery Dulov, who worked at "Gazpromneft" and "Rosneft", he left Russia on October 15, 2022. Two others are Russian IT specialists-relocators. This is 41-year-old graduate of HSE and Dresden University of Applied Sciences Anton Drachev, founder of the successful Russian IT startup Airo, and 30-year-old programmer Dmitry Bezugly, who worked at VK and "Yandex".
Also among the detained and arrested is 23-year-old IT specialist Sergey Sofronov from Cherepovets, his mother confirmed the detention. After the start of mobilization, he went to Kazakhstan, and from there to Azerbaijan.
The Telegram channel Baza identified two more arrested Russians: 22-year-old Dmitry Fedorov, who arrived from St. Petersburg a few months ago, and 25-year-old psychologist Alexey Vasilchenko, who came to visit the also arrested Dulov.
Among those detained in Baku was a tourist from Yekaterinburg Alexander Vaysero, his mother told RIA "Novosti". He arrived in Baku in June, and there is currently no contact with him.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported that a protest was declared to the Azerbaijani ambassador in Russia in connection with "steps to dismantle bilateral relations", however, the protest note only mentioned "unacceptable actions" of the Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies towards the agency "Sputnik Azerbaijan" and its employees.
"Of course, we see fakes in local media, <...> there is no certainty that this is a deliberate, systematic information campaign, perhaps it's in the heat of hysteria," Zakharova said.
Arrests continue in Russia as well. The Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sent Shahin Lalaev, a suspect in the 2001-2011 murders case, to a detention center, the regional court press service reported. Earlier, five people had already been sent to the detention center in this case, with a total of 15 suspects. Meanwhile, the head of the "Azerbaijan-Ural" organization Shahin Shikhlinsky, who was detained the day before, was released after questioning.
On June 27, law enforcement detained "several dozen" Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, and the next day the Investigative Committee reported on "stopping the activities of an ethnic criminal group". Its alleged participants were accused of contract killings and attempted murders committed in Yekaterinburg in 2001, 2010, and 2011. Later it became known that after the detentions and searches, two people died, and several other suspects were hospitalized.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan called the actions of the Russian security forces "unacceptable violence". The country's Prosecutor General's Office announced the initiation of a criminal case on charges of murder of citizens by a group of persons, committed with special cruelty by prior conspiracy, abuse of official authority, and use of torture, which led to the death of a person. The agency claims that after being detained and brought to the buildings of the security forces, Azerbaijanis, "being in a practically helpless state, unable to defend themselves", were subjected to numerous blows with blunt hard objects to various parts of the body, resulting in "serious bodily injuries".
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent".