The head of the Azerbaijani autonomy in Moscow has been deported from Russia.

The head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Moscow, Bakhtiyar Gasanov, has been deported from Russia to Azerbaijan. Previously, Gasanov attempted to appeal the decision on his expulsion, but the court rejected the appeal.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in September 2025, the head of the Moscow national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis, Bakhtiyar Gasanov, was stripped of his citizenship of Russia. Gasanov himself stated to journalists that this information is false, but his Russian passports are listed as invalid.

Bakhtiyar Gasanov was taken from the temporary detention center for migrants, where he had been for some time, to the airport and deported from the Russian Federation, reports the Russian bureau of APA today.

Previously, he attempted to appeal the decision on his expulsion, but the court rejected the appeal. It is known that in June of this year, he was detained by law enforcement and placed in the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens, where he remained until being sent to the airport, Readovka reported on August 17.

51-year-old Bakhtiyar Gasanov is a native of the Ordubad district of Azerbaijan; he was elected head of the National-Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Moscow in July 2022. A specialist in Eastern studies by profession, he was engaged in entrepreneurship and is "known in Moscow as a patron," as noted in a publication on the official portal of the mayor and government of Moscow. In publications by the Azerbaijani state news agency "AzerTAj", Gasanov was also mentioned as a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations of the Moscow government and the public council under the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of Moscow.

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably deteriorated after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, with 67 people on board, flying from Baku to Grozny. More details can be read in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Aviation disaster of flight Baku-Grozny" and in the article "Geopolitical confrontation: what the AZAL plane crash led to". A new wave of deterioration in relations between the two countries has been ethnic sweeps in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan. Baku accuses the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, and footage of the harsh detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, as stated in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Crisis in Azerbaijan-Russia relations".