Head of Azerbaijani community in Russia sentenced to 4 years in prison

The head of the Azerbaijani community in Russia’s Smolensk region, businessman Faik Aliyev, has been sentenced to four years in prison and fined 8.4 million rubles on bribery charges, the regional prosecutor’s office told TASS․

Earlier, Smolensk regional prosecutor Aleksandr Spitsin said that a large-scale corruption scheme had been uncovered in the region. Over seven years, employees of an electricity network company allegedly accepted bribes from major entrepreneurs to conceal electricity theft in hotels, restaurants, and residential buildings. The total amount of bribes reportedly exceeded 6 million rubles.

According to the court’s findings, between March 2020 and December 2024, Aliyev — the owner of a hotel complex and shopping center — paid 846,000 rubles in bribes to an official from MRSK Center–Smolenskenergo JSC.

“Taking into account the position of the state prosecutor, the court sentenced the businessman to four years in prison and a fine of 8,465,000 rubles,” the prosecutor’s office said.

The verdict comes amid recent tensions in Russia-Azerbaijan relations, which have eased following talks between the two presidents.

In recent days, Igor Kartavikh, executive director of Sputnik Azerbaijan, was released from custody in Baku, while Russia, in turn, freed one detained Azerbaijani citizen.

Negotiations reportedly took place mainly at the level of presidential aides, with Yuri Ushakov working directly with his Azerbaijani counterpart Hikmet Hajiyev ahead of the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe.