Sources reported that an Azerbaijani businessman was stripped of his Russian citizenship

Azerbaijani businessman Arshad Khankishiev, former head of the national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis of the Chelyabinsk region, which was liquidated by the court, has been stripped of his Russian citizenship.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel wrote, security forces in various Russian regions have raised complaints about ethnic Azerbaijanis, including those with Russian citizenship. At the same time, Russians and tourists living in Azerbaijan have complained about visits by security forces and demands to appear at migration services. On July 4, it became known that Russian authorities stripped the head of the regional national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis of the Moscow region, Elshan Ibragimov, of his Russian citizenship. This decision was not a consequence of the events in the Urals and the diplomatic crisis that arose between Baku and Moscow, Ibragimov's lawyer said. On July 9, Ibragimov left Russia.

Azerbaijani businessman stripped of Russian citizenship in Chelyabinsk region. By the decision of the FSB, Arshad Khankishiev's passport has been cancelled and entry into Russia has been closed, haqqin.az writes with reference to Russian public pages.

The publication claims that Khankishiev, according to Russian security forces, is involved in "propaganda of ethno-separatism and support for supporters of Alexei Navalny."

There is no official confirmation of this information.

Khankishiev is the founder of companies selling vegetables and fruits, a restaurateur, the founder/owner of Fruktdom LLC, Fruit House LLC, Nar Sharab LLC, and Kaspiy LLC. He was also previously the president of the Chelyabinsk regional socio-legal public organization "Azerbaijan" and the chairman of the public organization "Regional national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis of the Chelyabinsk region" (RNCA "Azerchel"), according to information on website "Rusprofile", dedicated to checking the activities of counterparties.

It is also indicated there that the Chelyabinsk regional socio-legal public organization "Azerbaijan" was liquidated on May 22 by a court decision, and on November 26, 2024, the organization "Azerchel" was liquidated.

Relations between Moscow and Baku noticeably worsened after the plane of Azerbaijan Airlines with 67 people on board, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. More details about this can be found in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Baku-Grozny flight crash" and in the material "Geopolitical confrontation: what led to the crash of the AZAL plane".

On June 28, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on the Russian authorities to investigate the deaths and injuries of Azerbaijanis who suffered on June 27 as a result of a special operation by security forces in Yekaterinburg. Experts in Baku called the cause of death of brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov blunt force injuries, while the Russian side called the cause of death a heart attack.

The ethnic raids in Russia and the retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan became a new round of deterioration in relations between the two countries. Baku accuses the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention Russians in Baku look like a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, says the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".

* Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.