A deserter from Chechnya who spent four months in the transit zone of an airport in Kazakhstan was able to fly to Armenia

A deserter from Chechnya who spent four months in the transit zone of an airport in Kazakhstan was able to fly to Armenia

Zelimkhan Murtazov, a deserter from Chechnya, flew from Kazakhstan to Armenia on April 20, reports Vot Tak, citing his brother.

For four months, Kazakhstan’s authorities refused to let Murtazov enter the country from the transit zone of Astana airport.

In 2025, the man deserted from the war in Ukraine and tried to fly to Turkey via Kazakhstan, but Turkish border guards sent him back to Astana, suspecting that his foreign passport was fake.

In Kazakhstan, officials refused to accept Murtazov’s asylum request. Using his Russian passport, he could fly out of Astana only to Kyrgyzstan or Belarus.

Murtazov previously told Vot Tak that he signed a contract in August 2022 after security officials threatened to send his younger brother into the army.

🩷Watch Alexandra Shvedchenko’s report on why leaving Russia for Kazakhstan to escape the war is no longer safe.