BAKU: The Sabail District Court of Baku has extended the arrest period for Ruben Vardanyan, the former "state minister" of the self-declared separatist regime in Azerbaijan's Karabakh, amid ongoing criminal proceedings. According to Trend News Agency, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan has initiated a criminal case against Vardanyan, who is presently a citizen of Armenia. The charges against him include financing of terrorism, participation in illegal armed formations, and illegal border crossing under Articles 214-1, 279.3, and 318.1 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. Vardanyan, recognized as the only billionaire with Armenian citizenship, has been under scrutiny both locally and internationally. Before his arrest, he renounced his Russian citizenship and acquired Armenian nationality, subsequently taking up a key role in the separatist government in Karabakh. In recent times, international organizations and foreign media have published investigative reports detailing alleged money laundering activiti es and other illicit actions involving Vardanyan across various countries.