Suspect in export of classified materials detained on border with Azerbaijan

The FSB detained Yadulla Rafullaev in Dagestan while leaving Russia through the border with Azerbaijan. According to the security forces, he took secret documents from a hiding place and tried to transport them across the border for transfer to Ukraine.

When crossing the Russian-Azerbaijani border at the automobile checkpoint "Yarag-Kazmalyar" in the Republic of Dagestan, a citizen of a foreign state, Rufullaev Yadulla Ramiz oglu, recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was detained, the department's Public Relations Center reported today.

According to the FSB, he was taking official materials from Russian territory that were obtained during an attack "on one of the secret carriers of the Russian military-industrial complex."

The department reported that the detainee said that he took the documents and mobile phone from a hiding place in the Kurgan region on the instructions of his brother, Rufullaev Sabuhi Ramiz oglu, who lives in Ukraine, for "subsequent transfer to Ukraine."

In A criminal case has been opened against the foreigner under the article on providing assistance to the enemy (Article 276.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which provides for a punishment of up to 15 years in prison, the department reported.

The report does not indicate Rufullaev's citizenship.

A video filmed by security forces, which was published by Izvestia, shows that Rufullaev was transporting cargo in a truck. Among the items seized from him were a tablet, a SIM card, a mobile phone, and flash drives.

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that the court sentenced Azerbaijani native Mehriban Lukinskaya to five years in prison on charges of confidential cooperation with a foreign state.

In the spring of 2025, security forces in various Russian regions had complaints about ethnic Azerbaijanis, including those with Russian citizenship, which led to a new round of deterioration in relations between the two countries. Baku accuses the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku looks like a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, flying from Baku to Grozny. You can read more about this in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Baku-Grozny flight crash" and in the material "Geopolitical confrontation: what the crash of the AZAL plane led to".

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