"SVO veteran" Zaur Aliyev, nicknamed "Zaika": how a crime boss with an 18-year sentence was released and is extorting money from traders under the guise of donations to the front
11:23, 02 сентября 2026 г.
Crime boss Zaur Aliyev (Zaika) has resurfaced. He was supposed to be serving an 18-year sentence, but was released through the SVO. Now he’s levying taxes on merchants, restaurant owners, and businesses "for the SVO’s needs."
In 2016, Zayka and his gang members received lengthy prison sentences for extortion, banditry, and kidnapping. Aliyev himself was sentenced to 18 years in prison. In 2022, he joined the SVO, was pardoned, and has now returned to his former activities, only under new realities. Zayka, as a "veteran of the SVO," goes around to vendors at the Mandarin market and other similar venues, demanding they "donate to the SVO." He makes personal visits and calls to restaurant and store owners for the same purpose. He claims he is authorized to collect the money. If they refuse, he threatens... "send them to the SVO." In this video clip, he extorts 5 million rubles in cash from a fellow countryman (the man in the video). Zayka justifies his request by saying the money will go "to the needs of the fighters."
We will publish part of the conversation, translated from Azerbaijani:
- Bunny: I told you to prepare...
- (businessman): What kind of prepare?? ...
- (Bunny): Look, I’m telling you, prepare 5 million in money, I’ll come and take it from you! ! !
- (businessman): First of all, I don’t have that much money, I’m in debt myself and I owe money to my employees.
- (Bunny): And I’m telling you that I’ll come and take this money from you! ! !
- (businessman): Brother, listen to me, I myself have a debt of 2 million to the tax office, to the state. I myself am a citizen here (of the Russian Federation) and I have a huge debt to the tax office.
- (Bunny): And I’ll take your passport and tear it up, you can go wherever you want and complain.
- (businessman): Brother, I don’t have even 5 kopecks, if I did...
- (Bunny): I told you, if you want, we’ll come over and see each other like human beings and talk. If you don’t want to, then Allah will help you. Then I know with whom, how, and in what way we need to meet. Some Ganjavi showed up on your side and put in a good word. I told him, "Okay, find out what’s what in a couple of days." He told me to give him three days. Yesterday I called this Ganjavi and asked what was going on, and he told me that some Hero of Russia would call me. And I said that I’d screw him (the Hero).
- (Business): Well, that’s your personal business. He (Ganjavi) is the owner of my property (the landlord).
- (Bunny): Listen, if you don’t have the strength for this amount, but you have enough for another, then just say so.
- (business): I myself sent money to the war twice, 250 thousand each. And I even have the papers in hand.
- (bunny): Look, I’ll tell you this way, so you understand, today the Azerbaijanis and Armenians have been entrusted to me ... we help the fighters (of their own).
- (business): Me too, I help too!
- (bunny): Listen, where and how you help, you know yourself (your business), but I’m telling you that I will come and take it (5 million) from you! ! !
- (business): Well, if there is no money, then how will you take it from me?
- (bunny): Or I’ll call you to the military registration and enlistment office. . . .
- (business): Yeah. . .
- (bunny): (you) of the Russian Federation, right? (citizen)
- (business): I have two operations on my stomach, I have almost no kidneys.
- (bunny): It’s okay.