Eight arrested Russians have been charged in Baku.

Russian citizens detained in an operation related to the transit of drugs from Iran planned to sell the acquired substances in Baku, according to the indictment.

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on July 1, a Baku court arrested eight Russian citizens detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Moscow hopes that Baku will abandon its excessive and unfair harshness towards the detained Russians, stated Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova. On July 16, it became known that relatives of some of the Russians arrested in Baku were able to see them, and the Russian consul called their conditions of detention good. In October, the arrest of eight Russians was again extended, with one of them complaining about a lack of medical care.

According to the indictment, Sergei Safronov (referred to as Sofronov in Russian media - note by "Caucasian Knot"), for selfish motives, conspired with Dmitry Bezugly, Alexey Vasilchenko, Valery Dulov, Anton Drachev, Dmitry Fedorov, Boris Timashov, Ilya Bezugly and other individuals, whose identities are being established by the investigation, to illegally acquire, store, and transport narcotics and psychotropic substances in large quantities for distribution and their subsequent illegal sale in the city of Baku, the publication Report reported.

The indictment notes that in order to commit these crimes, they divided the responsibilities among themselves in advance, and also created a criminal group and united into an organized gang.

The indictment also emphasizes that, by agreement with other suspects, Sergei Safronov, in an unknown to the investigation At an unspecified time, he illegally purchased a large quantity of narcotics and psychotropic substances (4.153 grams of heroin, 50 methadone tablets, and 36.814 grams of methamphetamine) from an unknown individual. He divided the substances into portions and distributed them among the participants for subsequent joint distribution.

All eight are charged under Articles 234.4.1 and 234.4.3 (illegal trafficking of psychotropic substances in large quantities as part of an organized gang) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

Relations between Moscow and Baku significantly deteriorated after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board from Baku to Grozny in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. More details can be found in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Baku-Grozny Flight Crash" and in the article "Geopolitical Confrontation: What the AZAL Plane Crash Led to." Ethnic raids in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan have become the latest step in the deterioration of relations between the two countries. Baku accuses Russian authorities of extrajudicial killings of Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".

Signs of easing tensions in relations between the two countries only appeared in October 2025: the first meeting in a long time between Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev took place on October 9 in Dushanbe, and on October 10, after the meeting, it became known that Sputnik Azerbaijan executive director Igor Kartavykh and one of the Azerbaijanis arrested in Russia were released. On October 19, Kartavykh flew to Russia. On October 25, the agency's editor-in-chief, Yevgeny Belousov, arrived in Moscow, and on the same day, Yusif Khalilov, an entrepreneur from Voronezh and one of the leaders of the local diaspora, who was arrested in the Russian Federation on a bribery case, arrived in Baku.