Sources reported that the citizenship of the head of the Azerbaijani autonomous region in Moscow was revoked.

The head of the Moscow national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis, Bakhtiyar Hasanov, has been stripped of his Russian citizenship, pro-government media claim. Hasanov himself told reporters that this information is untrue, but his Russian passports are listed as invalid.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in early July it became known that Russian authorities had stripped Elshan Ibragimov, head of the regional national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis in the Moscow region, of his Russian citizenship. On July 9, he left Russia. According to Ibragimov's lawyer, the latter's deprivation of citizenship was not a consequence of the events in the Urals and the resulting diplomatic crisis between Baku and Moscow. In August, information emerged that Azerbaijani businessman Arshad Khankishiev, the former head of the court-dissolved national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis in the Chelyabinsk region, had been stripped of his Russian citizenship. Analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" described the pressure on Azerbaijanis in Russia and several cases of their citizenship being revoked as a sign of a "campaign inspired by the top."

The pro-Kremlin media outlet Readovka reported on September 17 that Bakhtiyar Hasanov, head of the National Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Moscow, had his Russian citizenship stripped.

According to the source, Hasanov received Russian citizenship in the 2000s, and the reason for its revocation was "connections to shadowy schemes, including covering up illegal migration, counterfeiting, and creating ethnically motivated conflicts." Separately, it is noted that Bakhtiyar Hasanov "has repeatedly expressed support" for the Azerbaijani president. Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent Alexander Kots also reported on Hasanov's citizenship revocation, calling the public figure "one of Aliyev's most valuable assets."

Journalists discovered information about three Russian passports belonging to Bakhtiyar Hasanov in leaked databases, the most recent of which was issued in 2019. A passport validation service on Gosuslugi found all passports in Hasanov's name invalid. Meanwhile, the head of the Azerbaijani autonomy in Moscow told journalists that the information about his citizenship revocation "does not correspond to reality," declining to provide an explanation.1.

51-year-old Bakhtiyar Hasanov is a native of the Ordubad district of Azerbaijan. He was elected head of the National Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Moscow in July 2022. An orientalist by profession, he was engaged in entrepreneurship and “is known in Moscow as a philanthropist,” according to a publication on the official portal of the mayor and government of Moscow. In publications by the Azerbaijani state news agency Azertaj, Hasanov was also mentioned as a member of the Council on Interethnic Problems of the Moscow government and the public council under the Moscow Main Directorate of Internal Affairs.

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