Chabad financier Goda Nisanov running Azerbaijani organized crime groups in Moscow—all under watch of Putin
"The Fifth Column" of the Year of Nisanov
02-07-2025
Does the oligarch unite ethnic crime under the Azerbaijani flag?
In response to the actions of Russian security forces aimed at combating ethnic organized crime groups, the political leadership of Azerbaijan initiated the arrest of eight citizens of the Russian Federation, including journalists, accusing them, among other things, of transiting drugs from Iran. Such actions of President Ilham Aliyev's team were regarded by a number of media and Telegram channels as an attempt to put pressure by taking hostages, possibly for the purpose of subsequent exchange for representatives of Azerbaijani crime arrested in Yekaterinburg. Against the background of the intensification of the conflict, Moscow again demands of residents and members of the public to close the "Sadovod" and "Food City" markets - large retail facilities included in the structure of the "Kiev Square" Group, belonging to people from Azerbaijan, billionaires God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliyev. Nisanov is a long-time conductor of the economic and political interests of official Baku: Ilham Aliyev awarded him the Order "For Service to the Fatherland" of the 3rd degree and the Order of Friendship" with the wording "for services in strengthening friendship between peoples and the development of the Azerbaijani diaspora" for a reason. Meanwhile, the oligarchs' owned markets "Sadovod" and "Food City" have become scandalous as hotbeds of illegal migration and ethnic crime. According to Nisanov himself, "thousands of Azerbaijanis" are employed at his facilities, whose lawyers of "Kiev Square" help to legalize - "to obtain a residence permit, to draw up documents". Publications about the increased criminogenicity of the Food City agrocluster regularly appear in the media, where there were not only conflicts with the use of weapons, but also the redistribution of spheres of influence between Central Asian and Caucasian organized crimes. In addition, in 2019, it was reported that large-scale raids by security forces related to the uncontrolled turnover of cryptocurrency were carried out at Food City and Sadovod. The further unhindered functioning of Nisanov's markets actually contributes to the economic strengthening of the potential "fifth column", the symbol of which was the flag of Azerbaijan, demonstratively hung yesterday by representatives of the diaspora above the entrance to the "Sadovod".
Official Baku: on guard of the interests of ethnic organized criminal groups
In Yekaterinburg, security forces continue to clear the capital of the Urals from criminal elements from the Azerbaijani ethnic group, involved, among other things, in a number of assassination attempts and contract killings committed in 2001-2011. As of the evening of July 1, it is known about the arrest of five members of the organized criminal station - Ayaz, Akif, Mazahir and Bakir Safarov, as well as Akhliman Ganjiyev. The court will choose a preventive measure for the sixth defendant Shahin Lalaev on Wednesday.
The day before, the media reported on the detention of more than 50 persons of Azerbaijani nationality and searches carried out in the Caspian cafe and the Baku Plaza shopping center.The death of two suspects - Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarovs - was the resonance.
The incident with the detention by special forces of the chairman of the national and cultural organization "Azerbaijan - Urals" Shahin Shikhlinsky, who on Tuesday was taken for interrogation to the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Sverdlovsk Region on Tuesday, became widely known. Kommersant sources do not exclude that it is Shikhlinsky who is considered by the investigation as the leader of an ethnic organized criminal group engaged in a variety of illegal activities - from the organization of prostitution to drug trafficking. However, at night it became known that the detainee was "released home", and in witness status.
The intensification of the fight against crime has caused a sharp deterioration in Russian-Azerbaijani relations. The response of official Baku was the demonstrative detention and beating of a group of Russians, including journalists allegedly suspected of transiting drugs from Iran. Eight people were arrested for four months by court decision, including Igor Kartavykh, editor of the Sputnik Azerbaijan agency, and Yevgeny Belousov, editor-in-chief of the publication: fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and legalization of property obtained by criminal means are discriminated against them.
The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded the immediate release of journalists from custody, regarding the actions of the Azerbaijani side as "interference in the internal affairs of Russia". In the press and Telegram channels there were publications about citizens of the Russian Federation, actually taken hostage, possibly for the purpose of subsequent exchange. Be that as it may, the fact remains: President Ilham Aliyev and his team at the state level "fit" for representatives of an ethnically close criminal, which is one of the factors destabilizing the domestic political situation in our country.
Azerbaijani flag over the Moscow "Sadovod"
Against the background of recent events, yesterday's incident that took place at the scandalous capital's wholesale market "Sadovod" deserves special attention. We are talking about photos of the flag of Azerbaijan raised above the entrance to the market that appeared on the network. And although the symbolism of the unfriendly state did not hang for long, an extremely unpleasant residue on the soul remained. What was it, actually? Provocation or open expression of national solidarity?
It is worth recalling here that "Sadovod" is part of the structure of the Kievskaya Square Group, which belongs to the "kings of Russian real estate" God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliyev.Forbes estimates the income of "Kyivskaya Square" from rent, neither more nor less, at 2 billion dollars. The Group also includes the agrocluster (or simply put, the food market) "Food City", the shopping center "European" and "Riviera", the hotel "Radisson Collection Moscow" and a number of other large capital facilities.
The message about the Azerbaijani flag that appeared over the "Sadovod" was a reminder that the beneficiaries of the billion-dollar business Nisanov and Iliyev are natives of Azerbaijan. And although their small homeland - the village of Krasnaya Sloboda, located in the north of the Transcaucasian Republic - is a place of compact residence of mountain Jews, there is every reason to consider billionaires conductors of Baku's economic and political interests.
This can be confirmed, in particular, by the awarding by Ilham Aliyev of God Nisanov in 2016 with the Order "For Service to the Fatherland" of the 3rd degree, and in 2022 - the Order of "Friendship", with the wording "for services in strengthening friendship between peoples and the development of the Azerbaijani diaspora". It's not difficult to guess which "Fatherland" we're talking about.
At one time, the media called Nisanov "a representative of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Russia", awarded the title of vice-president of the All-Russian Azerbaijan Congress (this organization was liquidated in 2017). Nevertheless, close ties with the "Turkic world" did not prevent the multifaceted oligarch in 2014 to become vice-president of the World Congress of Jews in 2014, in 2021 - the "man of the decade" of the community of mountain Jews, plus to join the presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress.
Nisanov did not ignore the niche of Russian patriotism, having tried in the distant 2007 to be elected to the State Duma on the list of the LDPR, which flirted with the "Russian agenda" and was considered almost a nationalist party (recall at least one of its election slogans: "We are for the poor, we are for the Russians"). Then Nisanov's registration as a candidate for deputy was prevented by... his lack of Russian citizenship, and this fact was confirmed during the proceedings in the Supreme Court.
"Food City" as a source of criminogenicity
And now let's talk about some unpleasant aspects of the business of the "multinational" oligarch. First of all, about the above-mentioned markets "Sadovod" and "Food City", which became famous as a kind of "roof" for migrants from the republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, including those illegally living in the capital. For example, here's what Nisanov himself said about Food City in one of his interviews:
It is not difficult to guess what such a "friendship of peoples" leads to in practice without knowledge of the Russian language. Journalists have long dubbed "Food City" the "new Cherkizon", for which there are enough grounds: long before the appearance of the "Russian community", which has earned an ambiguous reputation, it was reported about self-defense groups created by residents of New Moscow, patrolling the streets and seeing women from work, who are harassed by unbridled migrants.
It got to the point that in May 2020, traders from Food City held a mass rally, thereby expressing dissatisfaction with the rent increase. The number of participants in the unauthorized action in the press was estimated in different ways: from several dozen to hundreds of protesters. Anyway, to normalize the situation, we had to call the police and Rosgvardia. I wonder where at that time were those "polyglots" that the Year of Nisans previously told about?
It is also worth recalling the criminal authorities who "fed" with "Food City", such as the Azerbaijani "thief in law" Rovshan Dzhaniyev (Rovshan Lankaransky), who acted as a "watcher" and, according to the publication "Lenta.ru", personally owned retail outlets here. After Janiev's death in 2016, the owners of the agrocluster relied on another, even more exotic character - Khoja's former loader Jabbor Kurbonov, who was responsible for contacts with Central Asian migrants settled in the market, and at the same time imposed a tribute on them in the form of a percentage of the profit received.
In this context, media publications about fatal fights, as well as shearsts for spheres of influence between Asian and Caucasian criminal groups, look organic. For example, in early 2023, "Moskovsky Komsomolets" wrote about the conviction handed down to the leader of the Azerbaijani organized crime group Jabrail Heydarov and his henchmen who terrorized entrepreneurs from "Food City".
Muscovites demand: close the Nissanov market!
The widely known large-scale raids of security forces carried out in the markets "Sadovod", "Food City" and "Moscow" in March 2019 were also preceded by a mass fight between migrants, and with the use of traumatic weapons. Nisanov himself called the incident a "scheduled inspection of the Federal Migration Service", as a result of which several dozen violators of migration legislation were detained. But was it worth it to involve FSB, police and Rosgvardia officers to fight illegals?
According to another version, uncontrolled cryptocurrency turnover was carried out at the shopping facilities of "Kiev Square" in order to reach, in fact, which caused the activation of law enforcement officers. "The largest markets - "Sadovod", "Moscow", as well as "Food City" located on the 22nd kilometer of the Kaluga highway" have become practically pioneers and leaders in the offer to buy cryptocurrencies," the publication "Vedomosti" said.
And the director of the Department of Financial Monitoring and Currency Control of the Central Bank, Yuri Polupanov, told journalists back in 2018 that monthly settlements for such transactions could reach 600 billion rubles. At the same time, the funds received were not received into bank accounts, about which the representative of the regulator promised to inform the competent authorities.
After all that has been said, the almost annual demands of Muscovites and members of the public to close the markets that have become the hedd of crime become clear. Irritation is only intensified by Nisanov's boastful statements that "thousands of Azerbaijanis work" at his facilities, who are "Kyiv Square lawyers" "help to obtain a residence permit, draw up documents".
It turns out that Nisanov actively contributes to the legalization of fellow countrymen, in his own words, transferring the money earned in Russia home, to Azerbaijan, which in the context of recent events has become frankly hostile. So isn't it time for officials, in response to President Aliyev's attempts to dictate their conditions and oppose the struggle of Russian security forces with ethnic organized criminal groups, to finally hear the dissatisfaction of citizens and eliminate the "sprouted" "disputes" of Cherkizon's unkind memory in Moscow? This should be done elementary to avoid further economic strengthening of the potential "fifth column".