Russian law enforcement officers in Moscow have detained Vagif Suleymanov, an Azerbaijani “thief-in-law” also known as Vagif Bakinskiy or “The Diplomat,” reportedly for immigration violations.
Suleymanov, a notorious figure in the Russian criminal underworld, has been transferred to the Sakharovo detention center for foreign nationals, where he awaits deportation to Azerbaijan.
Telegram channels linked to Russian security services, including VChK-OGPU and 112, released footage of the arrest. In the video, a SOBR special forces officer is seen pinning a man to the ground. When asked to identify himself, the man replies, “Suleymanov.” A voice off-camera questions him: “Are you a criminal authority? A thief? Are you a thief?” Suleymanov replies, “I don’t answer such questions.”
According to the Baza, another Azerbaijani criminal figure known as Zaur was detained in Orenburg. He is reportedly accused of holding a top rank within the criminal hierarchy and will be prosecuted in Russia.
Suleymanov has long been tied to Moscow’s business elite, including Food City, a major wholesale food market owned by billionaire God Nisanov. Born in Tbilisi in 1965 and raised in Baku, Suleymanov moved to Russia in the 1990s. According to Prime Crime, he has multiple convictions related to theft and drug possession, and was once considered a close associate of slain crime boss Aslan Usoyan (Ded Khasan), who was assassinated in 2013.
It remains unclear whether Suleymanov’s arrest is linked to the June 27 crackdown in Yekaterinburg, where dozens of ethnic Azerbaijanis were detained as part of a reopened murder investigation. Two detainees, brothers Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, reportedly died in custody under suspicious circumstances, with signs of torture found on their bodies.
In apparent retaliation, Azerbaijani authorities detained and allegedly beat more than ten Russian nationals in Baku, escalating tensions between the two countries.
