Kachkurkin, 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, with OpenAI among his clients.
On January 28, Kachkurkin was held administratively liable for two offenses — crossing the road in an unauthorized place and smoking a hookah in an enclosed space. Human rights organizations claim that these charges were fabricated. Shortly after the protocols were drawn up, the police petitioned the court for Kachkurkin's deportation "due to disrespect for the laws and sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan."
The process, from the drawing up of the protocols to the deportation, took only a few hours, whereas such procedures usually take weeks or even months. Kachkurkin was urgently sent to Russia, and upon landing, he was immediately detained and brought to court, which placed him in custody.
In Russia, he has been charged with treason due to money transfers to Ukraine. According to Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he faces 12 to 20 years in prison, and possibly life imprisonment.
On January 30, it also became known that Kazakhstan intends 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 criticism of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his active stance against human rights violations and political repression in the republic. He spent several years in a Russian prison for drug trafficking, after which he left the country, first ending up in Kyrgyzstan, and then in 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 extremist activities.
