BAKU/Feb. 17 2026 (The Bulletin) — Ruben Vardanyan, a Russian-Armenian businessman, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday by a court in Azerbaijan for various war crimes linked to his leadership of ethnic Armenians in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The sentence will enflame already strained Russia-Azerbaijan relations.
Vardanyan was the most high-profile of the group of ethnic Armenian leaders captured by Azerbaijani in November 2023 when it completed its capture of the region.
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