Deported in hours, a 25-year-old Crimean now faces life in a Russian prison. Rights experts warn his arrest reveals a chilling new extradition shortcut from Kazakhstan.
Last week, Kazakhstan deported a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen to Russia, where he was immediately arrested on treason charges. The 25-year-old IT specialist, Oleksandr Kachkurkin, moved from Crimea to Kazakhstan following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He was initially detained on misdemeanor charges that human rights experts say were fabricated. Kazakh police then put Kachkurkin on a plane to Moscow, despite Russia not having formally requested his extradition. The entire deportation process, from filing the misdemeanor charges to obtaining a court ruling, took only a few hours. And Kachkurkin now faces 12 years to life in prison if convicted. According to human rights lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov of Department One, Kachkurkin’s story points to a new level of coordination between Russian and Kazakh authorities — one that allows the Kremlin to go after anyone it chooses in Kazakhstan.
In late January, Kazakhstan deported a 25-year-old IT developer, Oleksandr Kachkurkin, to Russia — only for him to be immediately arrested aboard the plane upon landing in Moscow on charges of “treason.” If convicted, he could face a prison sentence ranging from 12 years to life.
Kachkurkin is a Ukrainian citizen who was born and raised in Crimea. After Russia’s occupation and annexation of the peninsula in 2014, he was forced to take Russian citizenship. In 2022, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he left for Kazakhstan, where he lived in Almaty and worked in the tech sector, including on projects for OpenAI.
Human rights advocates say the speed and circumstances of the case suggest that the deportation was, in effect, a covert handover to the Russian authorities. Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the human rights project Department One, told Meduza that there is no doubt the misdemeanor charges used to justify Kachkurkin’s deportation were fabricated, based on both Kachkurkin’s own account and court filings.
According to Kachkurkin, a police officer stopped him on the street and ordered him to cross the road to a specific spot so officers could check his documents. When he complied, police issued him a citation for jaywalking. “That’s what he described,” Smirnov said. “And when you look at the documents submitted to the court in the deportation case, there’s no doubt this was a targeted, planned operation.”
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Under Kazakh law, repeated misdemeanor violations can serve as grounds for deportation. “In Oleksandr Kachkurkin’s case, the violations were invented within a matter of hours,” Smirnov said. “The court immediately reviewed the police request and issued a decision that was carried out at once — without an appeal and without any possibility of challenging [it].” Kazakh lawyers and rights advocates, Smirnov added, were stunned. “Kazakh lawyers say that such proceedings usually take weeks — and with appeals, even months,” he said.
Kachkurkin was able to briefly call his family after he was detained in Kazakhstan, and then again using someone else’s phone on the plane. “We still don’t know whether that was some [law enforcement] officer or just a random passenger,” Smirnov said. After the plane landed in Moscow, all contact stopped.
Once in Russia, Kachkurkin was placed in pre-trial detention. According to Smirnov, there are reports he’s being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo remand prison, though that hasn’t yet been officially confirmed. What is known is that a criminal case for treason has been opened against him.
Smirnov declined to comment on the specific allegations in the criminal case. However, he noted that treason cases against people who have left Russia — or territory claimed by Russia — typically fall into two categories: accusations of transferring money to Ukraine or allegations of “preparing to defect to an enemy.”
Why Russian security services took an interest in Kachkurkin at all remains unclear. “This is a huge mystery for everyone — his family, rights defenders in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Russia,” Smirnov said. “This kind of abduction, using police and Kazakhstan’s own laws, is a completely new level.”
Kachkurkin has no known history of political activism. In 2024, he briefly visited Russia and was stopped at the border for questioning, but was ultimately allowed to enter the country. “Why they carried out this special operation against him is a mystery,” Smirnov said. “I think he himself might not have any clue what it’s connected with.”
While Kazakhstan has previously detained and deported people at Russia’s request, those cases typically followed formal extradition procedures. What happened to Kachkurkin, Smirnov argues, is different. Russia did not file an extradition request. Instead, Russian authorities appear to have exploited a loophole in Kazakhstan’s administrative law to secure Kachkurkin’s deportation — and were clearly prepared to take him into custody the moment he arrived in Russia. “The criminal case was opened at night, when the plane landed in Moscow,” Smirnov said. “They were waiting for him.”
Kachkurkin’s case may mark the beginning of a broader shift. Since late January, human rights groups have tracked at least three incidents in which people sought by Russian authorities were handed over by Kazakhstan, including a Chechen activist and a Russian military deserter. Taken together, Smirnov said, they point to a troubling pattern. “These are very frightening signals,” he said. “They suggest a new, coordinated approach [by Kazakh law enforcement] toward people pursued by Russia.”
The implications extend beyond Russian citizens, he added. “Kazakhstan is openly violating its own laws and using them against foreign nationals in order to hand them over for prosecution in Russia,” Smirnov said. “If a country allows such violations, no one is safe. Anyone, regardless of citizenship, is at risk in Kazakhstan if Russia decides to go after them.”
Cover photo: Vladimir Tretyakov / Shutterstock / Vida Press