Cases of persecution of leaders of the Azerbaijani diaspora have become more frequent in Russia. Thus, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Chelyabinsk region, Arshad Khankishiyev, was deprived of Russian citizenship. The media associate this decision with "propaganda of ethno-separatism" and support for oppositionist Alexei Navalny.

In addition, Yusif Khalilov, the leader of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Voronezh, was arrested. He is accused of giving a bribe of 330 thousand rubles to a doctor in order to avoid his son being drafted into the army. Khalilov refused to testify and does not admit guilt. He faces imprisonment for a term of 7 to 12 years, as well as deportation from the country.

Earlier, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Sverdlovsk region, Shahin Shykhlinsky, was left under arrest. According to preliminary data, he is accused of attempted murder, as well as violence against a government official. Before this, the Yekaterinburg court arrested his son Mutvala Shikhlinsky. He was charged under the article "use of violence against a government official".

On June 27, in Yekaterinburg, employees of the Russian Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB detained citizens of Azerbaijan and persons of Azerbaijani origin. They were suspected of involvement in previously committed crimes. Some of them were tortured, two died - these are 60-year-old Guseyn Safarov and his brother, 55-year-old Ziyaddin Safarov. Baku also noted that other detainees were tortured. Six people were sent to pretrial detention. Subsequently, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case on the fact of torture and premeditated murder with particular cruelty of two citizens of the country and persons of Azerbaijani origin by law enforcement officers of Russia.