The concept of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Urals was abolished after the arrest of Shykhlinsky

The elders elected Vidadi Mustafayev, an opponent of the previously arrested Shahin Shykhlinski, as the head of the Azerbaijani community of the Urals. The concept of diaspora was abolished because it had exhausted itself, Mustafayev said, promising to teach young people to live according to the norms of Russian legislation.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the head of the organization "Azerbaijan-Ural" Shahin Shykhlinski (also referred to in the media as Shikhlinsky and Shykhlinsky, - note of "Caucasian Knot") was detained by security forces in Yekaterinburg on the evening of July 1. According to his son, he was taken away for questioning to the Investigative Committee as a witness. At night, the security forces released the detainee, having questioned him in the Safarov case. On July 16, the court arrested Shahin Shykhlinski's son on charges of violence against a security officer: on the day of Shykhlinski Sr.'s arrest, his son Mutvali Shykhlinski was driving a Gelenvagen and hit one of the special forces soldiers. Mutvali himself denies the charges, and the appellate court left him in custody. Shahin Shykhlinski was arrested and taken to Yekaterinburg, sources said. Before his arrest, he asked Ilham Aliyev for help and indicated that he was in a guest house at the Azerbaijani embassy in Moscow.

In Yekaterinburg, elders elected Vidadi Mustafayev as the head of the "Center for Culture, Youth and Sports of Ural Azerbaijanis," Kommersant writes today.

Mustafayev was an opponent of Shkhlinski, who was the leader of another public organization, "Azerbaijan-Ural," and was considered the head of the Ural diaspora. Mustafayev criticized his compatriot for the lack of reaction to high-profile incidents involving Azerbaijanis and insufficient work to integrate them into Russian culture and society. He expressed the opinion that diasporas in general in their current form condone crime, E1 reported on August 31.

The concept of diaspora was abolished because it “has exhausted itself,” said Vidadi Mustafayev. As the head of the Azerbaijani community, he plans to hold cultural and business events to integrate cultural characteristics into the Ural environment. “I plan to educate young people, because no one explained to them what is good and what is bad. We will explain that they need to live according to the norms of Russian legislation. Shahin Shykhlinski’s activities as the head of the diaspora were a complete failure; they were not devoted to business or culture. "He put all the preferences in his pocket," E66 quoted Mustafayev as saying today.

Earlier, Vidadi Mustafayev was involved in a case involving a bribe to an FSB officer from the former mayor of Sredneuralsk, Andrei Zashlyapin. According to the investigation, in 2021, the security officer promised to put pressure on law enforcement officers who were investigating a criminal case against city administration employees and "minimize possible consequences" for a fee. According to the investigation, Vidadi Mustafayev acted as an intermediary in the transfer of 6 million rubles from Andrei Zashlyapin to an FSB officer for the Sverdlovsk Region, Kommersant noted.

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

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 have determined the cause of death of the brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarovs to be called blows from a blunt object, while the Russian side called the cause of death a heart attack.

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

* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.