Igor Raufovich Ashurbeyli (Azerbaijani: İqor Rauf oğlu Aşurbəyli;, Russian: Игорь Рауфович Ашурбейли; born 9 September 1963) is an Azerbaijani-Russian scientist, businessman and a Head of the micronation Asgardia, the Space Nation.
Igor Ashurbeyli was born on 9 September 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, a descendant of the Azerbaijani noble family of Ashurbeyov.
[1][2] In 1988, under the Soviet Union's then-new economic policies, he founded Socium, a small software company, serving as its first General Manager.
[8][10][11] On 12 October 2016, Igor Ashurbeyli announced in a press conference in Paris, France, "the birth of the new space nation Asgardia.
Going forward, the Asgardia team hopes to create habitable platforms in low-earth orbits, which is also where the International Space Station is located.
[22][23] In 2015, as IOPS Chairman Sergey Stepashin and Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky signed a Program of Joint Actions for the Development of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage from the Russian Federation which supported the repairs and restoration which led to the establishment of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS) Council in the state of Israel.
[23] For many years in support of Russia foreign policy, the IOPS has conducted charitable activities of the Russian Federation in the countries of the Middle East and is pivotal in collecting and delivering humanitarian aid to Syrians in Syria and Palestinians in Palestine including Gaza and the West Bank.