Photo from the human rights project "First Department". Kazakhstan expelled Alexander Kachkurkin to Russia on charges of treason
According to reports, Kachkurkin had been living in Almaty for the past few years. Following his expulsion from Kazakhstan, the man was arrested on charges of treason.
Alexander Kachkurkin is a native of Crimea, who obtained Russian citizenship in 2014. Forced to leave Russia for political reasons, he moved to Kazakhstan.
In his professional career, he worked as a DevOps engineer and IT developer. At the time of his arrest, Kachkurkin was involved in various projects, including collaboration with OpenAI, the developer of the GPT language models.
As reported by Didar Akanov, head of the police department of the Bostandyk district of Almaty, in a statement dated January 28, 2026, Alexander Kachkurkin was held administratively responsible for two violations: crossing the road in an unauthorized place and smoking a hookah in a closed space.
Based on these violations, the police filed a request with the court for his expulsion, citing "disrespect for the laws and sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan" and the need to "prevent offenses".
Upon arrival in Russia, Kachkurkin was detained and brought to court. The Meshchansky Court of Moscow on January 31 decided to place him in custody on charges of treason, as stipulated by Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
