Eight Russian IT specialists arrested in Azerbaijan have been formally charged in a drug trafficking case. Oxu.az reported this.
Today, the Baku Serious Crimes Court began hearing the criminal case against eight Russian citizens detained in Baku in June 2025. They are Sergei Safronov, Anton Drachev, Dmitry Bezugly, Dmitry Fedorov, Alexander Vaiserov, Valery Dulov, Alexei Vasilchenko, and Ilya Bezugly.
Photo: AZERTAC
According to the investigation, they are accused of illegal trafficking of psychotropic substances on a large scale as part of an organized group. Investigators say the Russians planned to purchase drugs in especially large quantities in Iran and then resell them in Baku.
The indictment also states that Safronov, together with other members of the group, illegally acquired heroin, methadone, and methamphetamine, and then distributed the drugs among the group’s members for joint sale.
Azerbaijani law enforcement announced the detention of the eight Russians in July last year. All of them were IT workers who had left Russia after the mobilization began. They deny involvement in the crimes attributed to them.
The prosecution of the Russians began amid a conflict between Baku and Moscow after natives of Azerbaijan were detained in Yekaterinburg in connection with murders committed in the 2000s. Two people died during investigative actions.
During the same period, employees of the pro-Russian media outlet “Sputnik Azerbaijan” were detained in Baku, including editor-in-chief Yevgeny Belousov and executive director Igor Kartavykh. After relations between Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev improved, the journalists were released and returned to Russia.