Azerbaijanis in Russia
Azerbaijanis in Russia or Russian Azerbaijanis ( (Latin), Русија азәрбајҹанлылары (Cyrillic); , Azerbaydzhantsy v Rossii) are people of Azeri descent in Russia. These may be either ethnic Azeris residents in the country or recent immigrants who profess Azeri ancestry. Aside from the large Azeri community native to Russia's Dagestan Republic, the majority of Azeris in Russia are fairly recent immigrants. Azeris started settling in Russia (with the exception of Dagestan) around the late nineteenth century, but their migration intensified after World War II, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, there are 603,070 Azeris residing in Russia, however the actual numbers may be much higher due to the arrival of guest workers in the post-Soviet era. The estimated total Azeri population of Russia as of 2002 might have reached as many as 3,000,000 people, with more than one and half million of them living in Moscow, though in the following decade there was a tendency for many Azeris to move back to Azerbaijan. The majority of post-1991 ethnic Azeri migrants have come to Russia from rural Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Today most provinces of Russia have more or less significant Azeri communities, the biggest ones, according to official numbers, residing in Dagestan, Moscow, Khanty–Mansi, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Samara, Stavropol, etc. Dagestan As of 2010, 130,919 Azeris lived in the Dagestan Republic, which makes them the region's sixth-largest ethnic group and 4.5% of its total population. Most of them are natives of the city of Derbent living in the historical quarter Mahal and making up about one-third of the city's population. Azeris constitute 58% of the population of the Derbentsky District (more than 20 towns and villages), 18% of that of the Tabasaransky District 2.35% in the Kizlyarsky District (villages of Bolshebredikhinskoye and Persidskoye), 1.64% in the Magaramkent Rayon, and 1.56% in the Rutul Rayon. The rest live in the cities of Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk and Kizlyar. Among cultural benefits, available to Dagestani Azeris, there are newspapers and magazines printed in the Azeri language, 72 public schools where Azeri is taught as a second language, and the Azeri Folk Theater in Derbent, founded in 1904. Historically Azeris of Dagestan were engaged in carpet weaving, currying, jewellery- and copper utensils making. Rural Azeris were occupied in farming. Most Azeris of Dagestan are Shia, although Sunni Muslims are found among the rural population. In 2000, in a presidential decree, Azeris along with 13 other ethnic groups of Dagestan received the status of a native community of Dagestan. As of 2011, there are four Azeri members of the Dagestan State Council. Beginning in 2014, the Azeri population of Derbent voiced its concern due to the government's indifference towards the poor state of infrastructure and frequent acts of vandalism and unauthorised removal of Azeri cultural landmarks in the city. These concerns led to protests and demands for a better representation at the municipal level. American political analyst Paul A. Goble characterised these events