Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced that an Azerbaijani individual was arrested in the Stavropol region, claiming that the unnamed man was planning a terrorist attack on behalf of a ‘Ukrainian terrorist organisation banned in [Russia]’.
The FSB’s press department told the state-run media agency TASS that the individual had ‘proactively’ joined the ‘terrorist organisation’ and based on instructions from the group, ‘conducted detailed reconnaissance of a number of sites intended for the commission of sabotage and terrorist acts, in particular administrative buildings of law enforcement agencies and transport infrastructure in the city of Yessentuki and Stavropol’.
The individual had allegedly ‘acquired the components and striking elements necessary for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, placing them in a hiding place, and subsequently intended, using the knowledge and skills acquired during his service in the special forces of the armed forces of Azerbaijan, to assemble several explosive devices for terrorist attacks’.
TASS also released a video of the arrest which showed the man, with his face blurred, confessing to plotting terrorist acts.
Azerbaijani media outlets have covered the arrest, but have not commented on the veracity of the FSB’s claims, which OC Media has also not corroborated.
Russia’s security services often arrest both foreigners and Russian nationals on terrorism charges. In recent years, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has often accused alleged terrorists of acting on behalf of Kyiv, typically without much evidence.
The practice of forced confessions in Russia, at times accompanied by torture by the authorities, has also been widely reported on.
The arrest comes at a low point in Azerbaijan’s ties to Russia, fueled by the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flight in December 2024, which Baku has blamed on Russian air defence, as well as the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis during a Russian police raid in Yekaterinburg in June 2025.
Nate Ostiller
