Azerbaijani fighter stripped of Russian citizenship

Pop-MMA fighter Javid Rzayev has been officially stripped of Russian citizenship and will be deported to Azerbaijan, according to a report by the Telegram news outlet Readovka.

An FSB officer informed Rzayev that he had engaged in actions negatively affecting the country’s political and social stability. This led to the revocation of his citizenship.

According to reports, during a pop-MMA tournament last July, the Azerbaijani fighter insulted another competitor from the ring. At the time, law enforcement authorities announced they would investigate the legality of how he had obtained Russian citizenship. However, the case has only now reached its conclusion.

Rzayev holds four victories and two losses in pop-MMA.

The former fighter is now forced to leave Russia and return to Azerbaijan.

The revocation of Javid Rzayev’s Russian citizenship comes against the backdrop of rising tensions between Moscow and Baku, as well as increased pressure on Azerbaijanis living in Russia. In late June 2025, Russian security forces carried out a large-scale operation in Yekaterinburg, detaining dozens of ethnic Azerbaijanis—many of them Russian citizens—under the pretext of investigating decades-old criminal cases. The raids resulted in the deaths of two Azerbaijani brothers while in custody, prompting outrage in Azerbaijan, where forensic experts concluded that severe beatings caused the deaths.

Azerbaijan’s government accused Russia of orchestrating targeted violence against its nationals on ethnic grounds, suspending bilateral cultural events and signalling diplomatic consequences. Russia, in turn, defended the raids as criminal investigations and accused Baku of overreaction.

By Vugar Khalilov