‘Unacceptable violence’ Sudden mass arrests in decades-old murder case spark diplomatic row between Russia and Azerbaijan

A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has jailed seven people pending trial on charges of murder and attempted murder targeting members of the Azerbaijani community between 2001 and 2011. According to local media, the arrests followed an extensive police operation during which residents with Azerbaijani roots were violently detained. Two suspects died during the arrests, and others appeared in court bearing visible signs of physical abuse. Azerbaijan has demanded that Russia investigate the arresting officers’ conduct during the raids and has begun canceling all Russian cultural events scheduled to take place in the country. Here’s what we know about the case of the Safarov brothers.

Update: On Monday evening, Russian state media, citing a law enforcement source, reported that several members of the Azerbaijani diaspora arrested in Yekaterinburg over the weekend were connected to a mass poisoning caused by counterfeit alcohol in 2021.

On June 27, 2025, police in Yekaterinburg carried out mass arrests of members of the city’s Azerbaijani community, bringing around 50 individuals to the local Investigative Committee office for questioning in connection with a series of murders and attempted murders committed between 2001 and 2011.

The two primary suspects, brothers Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, died during the course of their arrests, Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko confirmed on Monday. According to her, preliminary findings indicate that one of the men died of heart failure. The cause of the second death is reportedly under investigation.

Three more men were hospitalized following the detentions, including Kamal Safarov, who was admitted to intensive care. In total, 15 people are reportedly implicated in the case, including nine members of the Safarov family, as well as Akhliman Ganjiev and Aziz Abasov.

On June 28, the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the Investigative Committee announced that it had “shut down the activities of an ethnic criminal group.” The group’s members are now facing charges including murder by a group acting in collusion, contract killing, and attempted murder.

Investigators believe the suspects were involved in the 2001 killing of a local businessman named Yunis Pashayev, who died in the hospital from stab wounds sustained near a cafe owned by the Safarov family. E1 reports that although Pashayev managed to name his attackers before dying, authorities were unable at the time to bring charges against the Safarov brothers.

The detainees are also suspected of orchestrating a 2011 attempt on the life of another Azerbaijani resident of Yekaterinburg, identified as Fehruz Sh. In that case, investigators arrested the perpetrator, but they were unable to identify who ordered the attack. Also included in the case is the summer 2011 killing of Ikram Gadzhiev, the owner of a local produce warehouse.

On June 29, 2025, the Leninsky District Court in Yekaterinburg ordered for seven of the suspects to be jailed pending trial. One of the suspects’ lawyers, Mazakhir Safarov, told reporters that his client’s ribs were broken during the arrest. Another suspect, Ayaz Safarov, appeared in court with visible bruising on his face and claimed he had “fallen before the arrest.”

The Azerbaijani outlet Oxu.Az also published photos showing bruises on the bodies of Ramil and Mukhammad Safarov, who were detained the day before and are currently considered witnesses in the case.

The mass detentions in Yekaterinburg prompted a sharp diplomatic response from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, which condemned what it described as “unacceptable violence” by Russian security forces and called on Moscow to investigate possible misconduct during the raids. On June 28, Azerbaijan summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires in Baku, Petr Volokov, to issue a formal protest over the raids targeting Azerbaijani nationals. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova later responded, stating that the detainees are Russian citizens. That same day, Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin instructed the agency’s Sverdlovsk regional office to prepare a report on the detentions and the deaths of the two suspects.

The following day, a delegation from Azerbaijan’s National Assembly withdrew from the 23rd session of the Azerbaijani-Russian interparliamentary cooperation commission. The country also canceled all upcoming Russian cultural events organized by both state and private entities, including exhibitions, concerts, plays, and festivals.

According to a statement from the state news agency Azertag that cited the Culture Ministry, the decision was made in response to “deliberate, targeted, and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement” against Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg. The Azerbaijani authorities added that such incidents have “increasingly taken on a systematic character.”

On Sunday morning, Oxu.Az reported that the bodies of Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov would be transported to Baku later that day.