25-year-old IT developer Alexander Kachkurkin was deported from Kazakhstan to Russia, where he was detained on the plane and arrested on charges of treason. This case was reported by the human rights project "First Department".
Alexander, born in Crimea, received a Russian passport in 2014 at the age of 14. He moved to Kazakhstan for political reasons and had been living in Almaty for the past few years, working as a DevOps engineer and developer. Among his clients was the well-known American company OpenAI.
On January 28, Kachkurkin was held administratively responsible for two offenses — crossing the road in an unauthorized place and smoking a hookah in a closed space. Human rights activists claim that these charges were fabricated. As a result, the police applied to the court for his deportation, arguing it was due to "disrespect for the laws and sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan."
The process, from drafting the protocols to deportation, took only a few hours, whereas such actions usually require much more time. Kachkurkin was urgently sent to Russia, and immediately after landing, he was detained on the plane and taken to court, which placed him in custody.
In Russia, he is charged with treason for money transfers to Ukraine. According to Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he faces 12 to 20 years in prison or even life imprisonment.
Recently, on January 30, it became known that Kazakhstan also plans to deport Chechen activist Mansur Movlaev, who is currently in a pre-trial detention center in Almaty. Last December, he was denied refugee status.
Movlaev is known for his sharp statements against the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as for his speeches against human rights violations and political repression in the republic. He spent several years in prison in Russia for drug trafficking and, after his release, left the country, living for some time in Kyrgyzstan before moving to Kazakhstan, where he was detained in May 2025 at Russia's request. He has been placed on a federal wanted list in his homeland for financing extremism.
