Azernews.Az

450 Russian families living in two villages of a northern Azerbaijani region will be re-settled to Russia, according to an agreement reached by the two countries’ governments, a Russian official was quoted by local media as saying.

Sergey Subbotin, Russian President’s deputy representative in the North Caucasus, announced the agreement on resettling residents of Khrakhoba and Uryanoba villages in the Khachmaz region bordering on Russia, at a meeting of the heads of the Russian Federal Migration Service’s regional bodies.

Subbotin said that with the emergence of new borders after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow grew concerned over the condition of Russian citizens who remained in Azerbaijan.

"The issue was raised during presidential envoy [to the North Caucasus] Alexander Khloponin’s visit to Azerbaijan [in early October]. We agreed with the Azerbaijani leadership to enable the citizens living in those villages to move to Russia," Subbotin said.

Residents of Khrakhoba and Uryanoba used to hold Russian passports. In 1954, the land encompassing 300 hectares was temporarily granted as pasture areas to Daghestan, Russia’s administrative area, on a decision of the Soviet Union. In 1984, the government of the Azerbaijan Republic, which was then part of the USSR, extended the respective agreement until 2004. Residents of the villages have sought to remain citizens of Russia.

In the agreement on delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Russian border signed in September 2010, Russia confirmed that the two villages are part of Azerbaijan.