An Azerbaijani family in the Urals was subjected to harassment after receiving a gift from the district head.

A large family of ethnic Azerbaijanis was subjected to harassment on social media after a "Wish Tree" and gifts from the head of a Yekaterinburg district. The head of the family then asked officials to take back the gifts.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," ethnic raids on Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 2025 sparked a new crisis in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, which worsened after the December 2024 crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku to Grozny. During the raid, two Azerbaijanis died, at least one more was hospitalized, and several detainees reported torture. Experts in Baku listed blunt force trauma as the cause of death for brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, while the Russian side cited a heart attack. Subsequently, the head of the Azerbaijani community in the Urals, Shahin Shykhlinski, was persecuted, and in December, his successor, Vidadi Mustafayev, was arrested on fraud charges. At the same time, the leaders of Azerbaijani communities in several regions of the Russian Federation were stripped of their Russian citizenship.

A large family of Azerbaijani origin living in Yekaterinburg was subjected to attacks and harassment on social media after the "Wish Tree" charity pre-New Year's event. During this event, Vitaly Pershin, head of Yekaterinburg's Zheleznodorozhny District, removed a random toy from the Christmas tree and promised to fulfill a child's wish written on it.

The toy turned out to be the wish of seven-year-old Ali, who wanted a stunt scooter. On December 30, the official invited the boy and his parents to the administration building to present the gifts. Ali received the scooter, his sister a craft kit, and his younger brother sweets. In the administration's announcement, Ali's father was introduced as a construction worker and his mother as a housewife, without ever being identified by name, Novaya Gazeta reported today on its Telegram channel.

Following the publication of the district administration's report, both Pershin and the Azerbaijani family were subject to criticism from major nationalist media outlets, with commenters outraged that "there were no Russians in a Russian city." As a result of the publication about the gift presentation, which had garnered numerous hateful comments, the post was removed from the administration's social media pages and website.

"The barrage of hate, which extended not only to the official but even to the young children, forced the father of the family to ask Pershin to take back the gifts in order to stem the flow of vile comments online," the Ural publication Vecherniye Vedomosti wrote today.

Ali's parents "have been Russian citizens for over 20 years," notes the channel "Yekaterinburg. Glavnoye," whose authors are associated with the city administration. In a January 4 post, the channel called the harassment of the Azerbaijani family "a disgusting story." "Were there any proposals to sort candidates for the 'Yolka zhelaniy' (Christmas Tree of Wishes) by nationality? By religion? Should we wait?" the publication states.