A court in Baku has sentenced eight Russian nationals to prison terms ranging from three to four years after finding them guilty of large-scale drug trafficking and cyber fraud. The verdicts, reported in Azerbaijani court records, bring to eleven the number of Russian citizens convicted since April in a case that began with mass detentions in July 2025. The eight men—described by Russian independent media as IT specialists, entrepreneurs and tourists who had recently relocated to Azerbaijan—were accused of forming an organised criminal group that smuggled methamphetamine and methadone from Iran and engaged in online financial crimes. All denied the charges.

According to the Azerbaijani prosecution, the group operated with defined roles and was caught with nearly 4 kg of methamphetamine and over 36 kg of methadone. Officials in Baku present the convictions as a standard criminal enforcement matter. Moscow, however, has consistently linked the detentions to a political standoff. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that securing the citizens’ release is an “unconditional priority” and that their swift return would be “an important step for the full normalisation and advancement of bilateral relations.” Russian independent media and relatives of the detainees have described the men as hostages taken in a tit-for-tat escalation, noting that the charges were brought only after Russian security forces conducted deadly raids on members of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg.

The diplomatic crisis began in December 2024, when an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan after being struck by Russian air-defence fire over Chechnya. Baku demanded a public admission of responsibility, which Moscow initially withheld. Tensions spiked in mid-2025 when Russian law enforcement targeted influential Azerbaijani businessmen in Yekaterinburg, resulting in two deaths. In response, Azerbaijani authorities closed the “Russian House” cultural centre, detained employees of the Sputnik news agency on espionage charges, and arrested eleven Russian citizens who happened to be in the country. A turning point came in October 2025, when Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev met in Dushanbe. The Kremlin subsequently acknowledged Russia’s role in the plane crash, and Azerbaijan released the Sputnik journalists. Yet the remaining Russian detainees stayed in custody, their cases proceeding to trial.

The sentences—three to four years—are notably shorter than the maximum penalties for the alleged offences, a fact that regional analysts interpret as leaving diplomatic room for a prisoner exchange or repatriation under bilateral agreements. The Russian foreign ministry says it is engaged in “substantive work” with Azerbaijani counterparts and that the embassy in Baku remains in contact with the detainees and their families. The dossier now hinges on whether the post-Dushanbe thaw can translate into a mechanism for the return of the eleven convicted Russians, a process that both capitals publicly describe as desirable but that has yet to yield concrete results.