Russian citizen Mikhail Timofeyev, an associate of imprisoned Russian politician Sergei Furgal, has reportedly been detained in Georgia. His defence claimed the detention was based on a now-cancelled Interpol notice.
Timofeyev’s lawyers told BBC Russian that Tbilisi City Court placed their client in three months of pre--trial detention on 24 January.
According to the defence, the Prosecutor General’s Office based its request for detention on an Interpol Red Notice issued in April 2024, which was cancelled by Interpol itself in September 2025 after finding the Russian charges ‘unfounded’.
News of Timofeyev’s detention was first reported on 25 January by the Russian-language Telegram channel Tbilisi Life, which focuses on Georgian news. The channel noted that the 60-year-old Timofeyev arrived in Georgia in March 2024 and applied for asylum, citing political persecution in Russia.
His application was rejected in December 2024 of the same year and is currently under appeal.
According to the independent Russian outlet The Insider, Timofeyev was an aide and political ally of Furgal, the former governor of Russia’s far eastern Khabarovsk region. He was detained by Russian authorities in 2020, accused of organising murders in the mid-2000s to eliminate business rivals. The arrest sparked mass protests in his home region.
Frugal has denied the accusations and described the case as politically motivated. In 2023, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison, with additional time later added to his term.
In connection with Furgal’s case, Moscow launched criminal proceedings against some of the former governor’s associates, including Timofeyev. He was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia and placed on a wanted list several years ago.
Timofeyev’s lawyer, who preferred not to be named, told BBC Russian that their client has health problems, ‘suffers from a number of serious illnesses’, and ‘is forced to be a vegetarian due to severe allergic reactions to prison food’.
At this stage, it is unclear how legal action against Timofeyev will unfold and whether he will face a risk of extradition to Russia
OC Media asked both the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry for details about the case, including the circumstances of the arrest and the possibilities of extradition. Neither had responded by the time of publication.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
