[3] His screenwriting credits include more than 40 film and television scripts, numerous plays and pieces of prose, and nearly all of his scripts were eventually made into full feature or TV films, including White Sun of the Desert (1970, Белое солнце пустыни), Interrogation (1979, Допрос), Guard Me, My Talisman (1986, Храни меня, мой талисман), Urga (Урга, Территория любви, 1991), Burnt by the Sun (1994, Утомлённые солнцем), The Barber of Siberia (1998, Сибирский цирюльник), East/West (1999), Broken Bridges (2004) and Nomad (2005/2007).
[9] In 2009, Rustam Ibrahimbeyov became one of the founders of the Intelligentsia Forum, an Azerbaijani public organisation which unites prominent scientists, writers and journalists.
The forum unanimously criticised the arrest of Azerbaijani bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizadeh accused of "hooliganism" and demanded the government release opposition journalist Eynulla Fatullayev imprisoned allegedly for defamation, encouraging terrorism and drug possession.
He openly appealed to Aliyev asking to free the government of incompetent people he referred to as "cheats" who comprise the "core part of the system".
[12] Due to his public activity, the forum and namely İbrahimbeyov became subject to criticism from various government figures and members of the ruling party.
Ibragimbekov refuted these claims by stating that SOCAR deliberately incurs in his private property in the Baku suburb of Bayil intending to install oil rigs there without having proper documentation.
[17] Around the same time the head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Ali Hasanov attacked Ibrahimbeyov in the media, accusing him of fraud committed against businesspeople in Moscow.
Chair of the Committee for the Protection of Women's Rights Novella Jafarova believes Hasanov must be made legally accountable according to the Azerbaijani law which still considers libel a criminal offence but seems to be applied only against journalists.
Chair of the Azerbaijan National Committee of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Arzu Abdullayeva said Hasanov's words as those coming from the head of a social and political department are illogical.
In 2012, Ibrahimbeyov declared the Congress a non-functioning entity and co-established the Union of Azerbaijani Organizations of Russia together with high-ranking Russian businessmen of Azerbaijani origin: Aras Agalarov (father of Ilham Aliyev's son-in-law Emin Agalarov), Vagit Alekperov, Telman Ismailov, Isgandar Khalilov, Abbas Abbasov, Soyun Sadikhov, and Ramazan Abdulatipov (originally Dagestani).
[21] This led to a new wave of criticism of Ibrahimbeyov on the part of state-sponsored media and accusations of him "being sympathetic to Armenians", "embezzling public funds"[22] and "having exhausted his talent as a director".
[25] In December 2012, Ibrahimbeyov was held up at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, reportedly due to the fact that the computer system had failed to identify him.
[26] On 3 June 2013, Ibrahimbeyov filed a lawsuit against Ali Hasanov, then the Head of the Department of Social Political Issues of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, for libel.
In an open letter, he stated: "For opportunistic purposes and electoral gains, which are so highly insignificant compared to the democratic image of the country, there has been passed a law preventing the people of France from exercising their basic civil right of self-expression."