Baku native convicted in Russia under article on cooperation with foreigners

The court sentenced Azerbaijani native Mehriban Lukinskaya to five years in prison on charges of confidential cooperation with a foreign state.

The case of Mehriban Lukinskaya was heard by the Ryazan Regional Court. The woman is 55 years old, she was born in Baku, but lived in Russia for a long time.

Lukinskaya's case was submitted to the court at the end of May, the details of the case are classified. In 2017-2021, Mehriban Lukinskaya worked at the Ryazan Pipe Plant and at the Heavy Forging and Pressing Equipment Plant, and in 2019 she founded the company "Vertical", whose main activity was the sale of building materials. This company has now been liquidated, writes "Mediazona" (entered into the register of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation).

According to the publication, Lukinskaya's relatives and lawyer declined to comment on the verdict.

The article on confidential cooperation with a foreign state, international or foreign organization (275.1 of the Russian Criminal Code), which provides for three to eight years of imprisonment, was introduced in Russia in 2022.

The "Caucasian Knot" wrote that 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 did the AZAL plane crash lead to".

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