A Russian court will hear the case of an unemployed man from St Petersburg who faces charges for entering into a sham marriage with an Iranian citizen, the city's prosecutor's office said on September 5.

The man, a resident of St Petersburg's Moskovsky district, allegedly agreed to the fraudulent marriage in exchange for financial compensation, prosecutors said, Kommersant reported.

The fraudulent marriage is part of a wider trend of Iranians using Russia’s recently relaxed visa rules to gain entry to nearby Baltic states and subsequently claim asylum status in those countries.

"The marriage was registered at the local registry office with the aim of the woman obtaining a Russian multiple-entry visitor visa through simplified procedures, followed by a temporary residence permit and citizenship," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Law enforcement officials have filed a lawsuit to declare the marriage invalid.

The man has been charged under Article 322.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, which deals with organising illegal migration. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.

The case highlights ongoing efforts by Russian authorities to crack down on immigration fraud.

In a separate incident, St. Petersburg investigators recently concluded an investigation into two local residents accused of fictitiously registering 24 migrants at a communal flat in the city.

Further east, Volgograd 1 reported a Russian woman has been fined for illegally registering eight foreign nationals at her residence in the area, local authorities said on August 31.

The 41-year-old resident of Volgograd's Dzerzhinsky district falsely registered four Egyptian citizens, three Uzbek nationals, and one Iranian at her address, while the individuals actually resided elsewhere, according to a statement from the regional office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"The violation of migration laws was uncovered by employees of the multifunctional centre, who then reported it to the police," a spokesperson for the regional police headquarters told Volgograd 1 news channel.