BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 28. Within every pseudo-great power lies a primitive savagery - an instinctive urge to find an enemy, to scapegoat them, to blame them for its own failures and tragedies, as if anyone in this world could be held accountable for senseless collapses and false reigns. Russia, scorched by its own contradictions and a cursed sense of greatness that has long decayed into dust, draws not geographical but psychological borders. These boundaries aren’t found on maps but in minds, cutting through hearts like a rusty knife, dividing people into "us" and "them". Questions like who deserves love or who has surpassed whom are left unanswered. The race for this mythical superiority never ends - it’s a race with no finish line, a cry of insecurity, a relentless march in circles.
Each generation in Russia creates a new enemy. And that enemy is always someone who should never be one. When an empire is in agony, when its last pitiful remnants scream about a glorious past, it begins to invent foes like a beast of folklore. Today’s enemies are migrants, people from the Caucasus, Azerbaijanis - those who have lived side by side for centuries, breathed the same air, absorbed the same culture. We are not just neighbors - we are one. History cannot be separated from the people who shaped it. But as the decaying empire begins to crumble, those who were once a part of it are cast out. No longer seen as people, they become targets. Their accents provoke hate, their words are seen as alien and offensive. Their lives become grounds for brutal revenge. Within these invisible but terrifying borders of malice, their names are crimes, and their lives - punishment.
Today, Yekaterinburg is not just a place where justice is at stake. It’s a frenzy that shakes the very soul of power. Police, officials, and those governing this decaying body don’t know how to deal with accents, skin tones, or appearances that don’t match their dull, twisted ideas of who is "one of us" and who is "other". Every word, every accent that doesn’t align with their stone-cold expressions is met with hatred. Because they don’t know what conscience is. There is no conscience. No justice. Only one weapon remains, which they wave like a proud banner: fear. This isn’t patriotism. It’s violence - a system forced into submission, excused by monstrous brutality. And they themselves become monsters.
Let’s not forget: in 2006, during a campaign to "restore order" at Moscow’s markets, the Interior Ministry and Federal Migration Service carried out large-scale raids, primarily targeting the Azerbaijani community. In two months, over 1,500 people were detained, nearly 40% were Azerbaijani citizens. Eyewitnesses spoke of mass humiliation, detentions in freezing warehouses without food or water, and police abuse. Despite protests by human rights activists, no consequences followed.
In 2013, after the killing of a young Russian in Biryulyovo, ethnic hysteria broke out. Orkhan Zeynalov, an Azerbaijani, was charged, though no intent was proven in court. Still, the media frenzy sparked pogroms affecting more than 300 Azerbaijanis. Over 1,200 people were detained, and hundreds deported.
In 2019-2020, as migration laws tightened, mass "inspections" of Azerbaijanis occurred in the Moscow suburbs. 65% of those detained were Azerbaijani citizens, underscoring the authorities’ bias toward this ethnic group.
These sinister trends have only intensified. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, between 2021 and 2025, 148 ethnically motivated attacks on Azerbaijanis were documented—including murders like the killing of 22-year-old Elnur Guliyev in Kazan in 2023, whose investigation was quickly suspended.
Tensions escalated further in Yekaterinburg in 2024. During police and National Guard raids, more than 380 Azerbaijanis were detained, many of whom held valid work permits. Reports cite torture, psychological abuse, threats to fabricate charges, and even threats to arrest relatives in Azerbaijan.
According to monitoring groups, between January and May 2025 alone, over 220 cases were filed in Sverdlovsk region regarding pressure on migrants and coercion to sign military contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. These weren’t voluntary enlistments - they involved threats of false charges, intimidation of family members, and in many cases, outright violence. Russian media reported in April 2025 a surge in criminal charges against migrants on dubious grounds, followed by offers to “clear their records” in exchange for military service.
Statements by officials confirm that this is not an isolated practice but a systemic policy. On May 12, 2025, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta: "Involving migrants in fulfilling state tasks in the [so-called] special military operation zone is part of state policy". This clearly indicates a centralized approach - not sporadic initiatives by local regions.
Discriminatory profiling, where police and FSB detain young men based solely on appearance or religion, is occurring across Russia. A May 21, 2025, report by the Council of Muftis of Russia stated that Islamophobic incidents and segregation rose 34% year-on-year, pointing to a targeted campaign to suppress Muslim communities.
These trends also reflect in Russia’s attitude toward Azerbaijan. In May 2025, an Azerbaijani MP invited to a cultural event in Astrakhan was denied entry by Russian border guards. This act highlights how anti-Azerbaijani sentiment within Russian elites is becoming less concealed and more integral to the nationalist agenda.
These sentiments are fueled by pro-Kremlin figures like Vladimir Solovyov, who in May 2025 made fresh anti-Azerbaijani remarks on state TV, labeling the Azerbaijani community as "unreliable". Such statements aren’t random - they’re part of a coordinated information campaign aimed at constructing an internal “enemy.”
Cyberattacks on Azerbaijani government and public institutions, documented earlier this year, also fit this pattern. A March 2025 report by a Milli Majlis commission confirmed that several attacks on state networks bore digital traces of Russian groups acting with the knowledge or participation of Russian security services.
One wound remains especially raw for Baku: the downing of an Azerbaijani civilian aircraft. Despite repeated appeals, Russia has taken no effective action to investigate or punish those responsible.
All of this shows a clear pattern: facing mounting domestic challenges from the war in Ukraine and sanctions, the Russian government is seeking convenient "internal" and "external" enemies to justify its social and economic decline. Notably, it’s the Muslim and Turkic peoples, historically and culturally out of place in the framework of Russian imperial nationalism, who come under fire. This is reflected in systemic segregation, growing political and social Islamophobia, and the empowerment of far-right movements, which in 2025 have been given unprecedented freedom.
Regional risks are also inflamed by Russia’s actions toward Armenia. Under the guise of alliance rhetoric, Moscow is nudging Yerevan toward revanchism. Recent speeches by Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and other Kremlin-backed figures are again filled with belligerent rhetoric about Karabakh and the South Caucasus. The goal is clear—to distract Armenian society from internal problems and reignite conflict as a pressure tool. Russia aims to preserve its military presence in the region under the pretext of "security guarantees", which in reality signals a continuation of its neo-colonial policy.
...Indeed, Russia has been shaken by the very evil it created. Putin’s current policies represent the ugliest form of selective militarist chauvinism that the Russian Empire has stoked for decades. The brutality toward neighboring peoples today is no accident - it is the logical outcome of a system where the tragedies of Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, and other peoples go unnoticed. Our brothers and sisters have become victims of political cynicism and inhuman cruelty, now normalized in the Russian system.
Discrimination and violence against Ukrainians, Chechens, and now Azerbaijanis is treated as normal. There’s no shock, no remorse, because these atrocities are rooted in the very nature of the Russian state.
You may ask: How is it possible? How can such cruelty, ethnic cleansing, and violence become "normal"? These crimes have been normalized because they’re embedded in the core of Russian imperial policy. A century ago, it endured bloody revolutions and Stalinist purges, yet its internal nature remained unchanged. The politics of terror have always been intertwined with Russian chauvinism and the annihilation of anything that resists Russification or fails to fit their bizarre, barbaric political tradition.
And now we see the truth. In the 21st century, in a modern, democratic Europe that values equality, freedom, and human dignity, Russian authorities claim the right to destroy us as a people. There is no difference between this and how Russia razed Ukrainian cities using high-tech weaponry, committing genocide. The crimes in Bucha, Mariupol, and other cities are echoes of the same policies Russia uses against us in Azerbaijan.
But don’t be mistaken - this is not isolated. Since its inception, Russia has saturated us all with chauvinism and aggression. Linguistic and cultural erasure, destruction of identity, economic sabotage, and political suppression - that is their way. Not accidents, but part of a deeply rooted imperial strategy. The collapse of the USSR didn’t end it - it merely transformed into a more ruthless form. Ethnic cleansing of Chechens in the 1990s, today’s aggression in Ukraine and the Caucasus - these are just evolutions of the same chauvinist ideology.
In the 1990s, skinhead violence raged on Russian streets, tacitly backed by authorities. In the 2020s, the same violence, bias, and aggression are now openly enforced by Russia’s law enforcement system - fully responsible for the country’s legal lawlessness. Let us not forget that the Russian Orthodox Church actively incites this violence in its propaganda, justifying the state’s brutality and embedding the idea that ethnic cleansing, war, and violence are not just acceptable - but necessary for the "purity of the Russian soul".
The tragedy of the peoples of Russia is that they live under a regime that projects humanism abroad but operates as a brutal machine internally - grinding up values and burning them in its engine. A system that conquers entire peoples, razes cultures, and depletes resources in the name of empire. Russia may speak of protecting "Russians", but in truth, it defends only the interests of elites who govern this merciless machine.
Let us never forget: behind the tragedy of January 20, the Khojaly genocide, and the occupation of Azerbaijani lands for nearly 30 years stood not just Armenian aggression - but Russia’s direct involvement. Moscow not only stood idle but actively fanned the flames, aiding the aggressor. How many times did Russia exploit our conflict with Armenia for its gain? How many times did it side with those who destroyed our cities and villages? In every case, we saw Russia’s hand.
But these are not just emotional words - they come from a living, blood-and-flesh national consciousness that, despite every attempt to suppress or silence it, cannot and must not be crushed by political games or diplomatic manipulation. And anyone who thinks it can be ignored is mistaken. History always finds its voice. And national consciousness - this is its unbreakable force.