An Azerbaijani court has sentenced eight Russian citizens, who were detained during the conflict between Moscow and Baku, to prison, Minval reported.
All eight were convicted of “large-scale drug trafficking.”
Sergey Sofronov, Anton Drachev, Dmitry Bezugly, and Valery Dulov each received four years. Dmitry Fedorov, Boris Timoshov, Alexey Vasilchenko, and Ilya Bezugly each received three.
The crisis in relations between Russia and Azerbaijan began in December 2024, after an AZAL passenger plane crashed due to the actions of Russian air defenses. Russian authorities долго refused to take responsibility for the incident or issue an apology, prompting a sharp reaction from Baku.
The situation escalated in the summer of 2025, when influential members of the Azerbaijani diaspora began to be detained in Russia. In response, Azerbaijan detained 11 random Russian citizens, including recently relocated IT specialists and entrepreneurs, as well as tourists.
The first three sentences were handed down in April and May. Aleksander Vaysero was given four years in prison, while Igor Zabolotsky and Ilnur Valitov were each sentenced to three years. All three were found guilty of cyber fraud and money laundering.
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