News

The two elderly men beheaded in the video have been identified, The Guardian reports. They were ethnic Armenians, their fellow villagers have reported.

For three days already, more than 60 Khin Shen villagers in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot leave the village because the road is blocked by Azerbaijani militaries, David Davidyan, the head of the neighbouring Mets Shen community, has reported.

Relatives of deceased Inal Djabiev disagree with the results of a forensic examination, and that fact prevents the transfer of the criminal case to court, states Anatoly Bibilov, President of South Ossetia. The leader of the republic has also added that he will pay for the repeated forensic examination if the family has financial difficulties and will meet the relatives of Inal Djabiev at any time.

Journalist Afghan Sadygov has been refusing to accept food and water for the 42nd day in a SIZO (pre-trial prison). The SIZO medical staff began to administer intravenous food to Afghan Sadygov. According to physician Aidar Abdullin, intravenous injections of nutrients are applied to critically ill patients.

Araik Arutyunyan, President of Nagorno-Karabakh, refused to meet the co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group from the United States and France. The Russian co-Chair did not come to the meeting due to illness. Araik Arutyunyan has missed a rare chance to discuss with the mediators the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and the problems that arose after the war, political analysts note.

For several months, the family of Nadir Shakhbazov has been unable to reunite with their daughter in Azerbaijan because of the closed border with Dagestan and irregular departure of people to their homeland. The family members have to rent an apartment and are short of money to pay tickets for a plane.

The court has sentenced six protesters against the outcomes of the Georgian parliamentary elections to seven days of arrest each. They were detained on December 13, after an attempt to enter the Adjara parliament building and clashes with the police.

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported that 566 refugees had been brought to Stepanakert by buses from Yerevan, accompanied by patrols of Russian peacemakers and military policemen.

Six Armenian reservists have suffered during the shootout near the villages of Khtsaberd and Khin Takher; ten others have been presumably taken prisoners of war (POWs), Stepanakert has stated.

During the Yerevan-Baku exchange of prisoners of war (POWs), 44 of them have been returned to Armenia, but some of Armenian ones remain in Azerbaijan, the Karabakh authorities have informed.

In 2020, Russia is one of the leaders in the number of imprisoned journalists, Abdulmumin Gadjiev, an editor of the "Chernovik" (Draft) portal among them, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported.

Ali Khamkhoev, a resident of Ingushetia, suspected of using violence against a state official at a rally in Magas, will remain under arrest until January 25, 2021.

Azerbaijani militaries should retreat to their initial positions after their offensive in the vicinity of the Karabakh villages of Khtsaberd and Khin Takher, Russian analysts believe. The incident in the Gadrut District was caused by the parties' unclear agreements; while the Russia's position should be tougher, the experts have stated.

Two junior warrant officers of the Azerbaijani Army have been accused of mocking the bodies of their enemies; and two soldiers – of desecrating graves, the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan has reported.

The mother of Malika Djikaeva, an Instagram blogger from North Ossetia, requested Ramzan Kadyrov to help free her daughter from arrest in Chechnya and apologized for her shocking videos on social networks.

Residents left the villages of Khtsaberd and Khin Takher during the hostilities. The Armenian forces stay in the Khtsaberd village, while in the Khin Takher village, Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijani soldiers stay and negotiate.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called false the messages reporting that his family members had already left the country. He refused to leave his post ahead of schedule.

In Gudermes, a court found Bekkhan Abdurashidov and Aslan Dukaev, former fighters of the National Guard of Russia, guilty of illegally detaining Alexei Kardashov, a resident of Dagestan, who disappeared after the detention. Each of the law enforcers was sentenced to 3.5 years of suspended imprisonment, and human rights defenders consider the above sentence to be too lenient.

On December 19, on the fortieth day after the end of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a three-day mourning for the deceased will begin in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announces.

A landmine explosion occurred in the Agdam District of Azerbaijan. As a result, a civilian was killed, and two more persons, including a military man, were injured.