06:32, 14 May 2026

Two Russians detained in Azerbaijan have been sentenced to prison.

Igor Zabolotsky and Ilnur Valitov were sentenced to three years in prison in a case of money laundering obtained through cybercrime.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in April, a Baku court sentenced Russian citizen Alexander Vaysero to four years, finding him guilty of money laundering.

On July 1, 2025, a Baku court arrested eight Russian citizens detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime. Moscow hopes Baku will abandon its excessive and unfair harshness towards the detained Russians, said Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova. According to the indictment, those detained in an operation related to the transit of drugs from Iran planned to sell the acquired substances in Baku. The eight arrested included 30-year-old developer Dmitry Bezugly from St. Petersburg and 26-year-old Ilya Bezugly from Kaliningrad (no relation), 41-year-old Anton Drachev, 23-year-old Sergey Sofronov, 40-year-old Igor Zabolotskikh, 22-year-old student Dmitry Fedorov from St. Petersburg, 25-year-old psychologist Alexey Vasilchenko, and 38-year-old developer Valery Dulov. Another Russian arrested in Azerbaijan was 35-year-old Alexander Vaysero from Yekaterinburg.

Yesterday, May 13, the state prosecutor testified at the trial presided over by Sabuhi Huseynov in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes. He requested four years' imprisonment for the defendants, Haqqin.az reported.

On the same day, Igor Zabolotsky and Ilnur Valitov were sentenced to three years in prison, APA reported. The Russians were charged with money laundering. They were accused of laundering 98,000 manats (approximately 4.2 million rubles) obtained through cybercrime.

Igor Zabolotsky is an IT entrepreneur from Izhevsk, RBC reported. In 2019, Zabolotsky launched ClickChat, a service for business communication with clients, and presented it at the Skolkovo Technopark. Monuage, an online women's clothing store owned by the entrepreneur's wife, Elena, claimed to have quadrupled sales thanks to the service. In March 2024, Zabolotsky closed Clickservice.

Meanwhile, in 2020, the businessman was tried for organizing a network of underground casinos. The court dismissed the case and imposed only a judicial fine on Zabolotsky, taking into account that he had no prior convictions and had made amends, Mediazona* clarified.

The trials of representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg and Russian citizens in Baku are being held simultaneously. However, the resolution of the issue related to the AZAL plane crash paved the way for finding mechanisms for the release of citizens of both countries, according to analysts in Azerbaijan.

Relations between Moscow and Baku significantly deteriorated after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, en route from Baku to Grozny. 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 reprisals against 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".

As a reminder, on April 15, official Baku and Moscow reported on the resolution of the consequences of the AZAL plane crash, including the issue of compensation. The cause of the tragedy was determined to be an "unintentional action of the air defense system."

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/423229