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Azerbaijani national Niyaz Zahidov detained in Voronezh stripped of Russian citizenship

13 December 2025 20:56 (UTC +04:00)

It has been revealed that Azerbaijani Niyaz Zahidov Azim, who was detained in the Voronezh region of Russia, was deprived of his citizenship of the Russian Federation in June of this year, according to the information obtained by the Russian bureau of APA.

Zahidov's Russian citizenship was terminated by the decision of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Voronezh region dated June 3, 2025.

Zahidov had the opportunity to appeal the decision to a higher authority within three months.

Mehdi Mehdiyev, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Voronezh, told APA's Russian bureau that a special police unit, OMON, had conducted an operation against Zahidov several years ago and raided his birthday party.

The head of the diaspora said that Zahidov does not have citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan. He said that Zahidov was also deported from Azerbaijan some time ago:

His brother recently passed away. He went to Azerbaijan, but they did not let him in. He was deported from there as well. Now the Russian side has also revoked his citizenship. "They came to his house and said that his citizenship had been taken away."

M. Mehdiyev stressed that in general, the situation with the diaspora in Voronezh is calm.