Chechen native Zelimkhan Murtazov flew from Kazakhstan to Armenia on 20 April after spending almost four months in the transit zone of Astana International Airport. Murtazov had deserted his military unit, claiming he was forced to enlist under duress.
The Belarusian Russian-language independent media outlet Vot Tak has reported that Zelimkhan Murtazov flew to Yerevan the first day direct flights between Astana and Yerevan were launched.
His brother, Turpal Murtazov, said that Zelimkhan Murtazov was questioned by Armenian border guards for several hours before being allowed into the country.
‘He says he is getting used to normal life, sitting in the sun, joking that he is getting vitamin D’, Turpal Murtazov told Vot Tak.
He also said that he does not consider Armenia completely safe for people from Chechnya who are fleeing persecution at home, citing the killing of Aishat Baimuradova in Yerevan in late 2025 after fleeing domestic abuse in Chechnya.
Elizaveta Chukharova
Murtazov ended up at Astana airport in late December 2025 after an unsuccessful attempt to fly to Turkey. Kazakh border guards did not allow him into the country, citing national security concerns, and his asylum request was rejected 10 days after it was submitted. Before that, Turkish border guards suspected that Murtazov’s passport was fake, confiscated the document and sent him back to Astana.
Throughout his time at the airport, Zelimkhan Murtazov’s relatives tried to get him out of Astana to a safe country through other means to no avail, his brother Turpal Murtazov said.
Direct flights from Astana on a Russian passport were only available to Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, where he feared he could be handed over to the Russian authorities.
In the transit zone, Zelimkhan Murtazov lived on benches, while assistance was passed to him through airport staff and acquaintances in Kazakhstan.
In conversations with journalists, Zelimkhan Murtazov said that in August 2022 he signed a three-year contract with the Akhmat unit under pressure from Chechen security forces, who threatened to send his younger brothers to war.
He claimed that his unit was engaged in constructing earthworks in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region rather than combat operations, and that the contract had been automatically extended without his consent. According to him, he ‘did not kill anyone or fire a shot’. At the same time, according to the Ukrainian Mirotvorets (‘Peacemaker’) database, Zelimkhan Murtazov enlisted in the army on 11 August 2022 and served as a grenade launcher operator.
According to Murtazov, he decided to flee the front while on leave in the autumn of 2025. In an interview, he said that he did not want to return to service because he did not support ‘what is happening in Russia’ and feared being handed over to Russia.
‘If I am sent back, I will simply no longer exist. First torture, then they will kill me. I am sure of it’, Zelimkhan Murtazov said.
Murtazov’s story is only one of many related to the extradition of Russian citizens from Kazakhstan. In January 2026, human rights activists said Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office had approved the extradition of Chechen activist Mansur Movlaev to Russia, after which the UN Human Rights Committee asked Astana to refrain from extradition until the complaint had been examined — only following this did Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court suspend Movlaev’s extradition.
Human rights organisations said during this period that Kazakh authorities continued to prosecute critics in cases involving ‘extremism’, and that international norms, including the principle of non-refoulement, prohibit returning a person to a place where they face torture or serious danger.
In February, Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan promised in an interview with Russian independent Dozhd TV (‘TV Rain’) not to deport Russians on politically motivated requests.
Yousef Bardouka
