News

Drone attacks were reported in the Krasnodar and Rostov regions. Officially, there were no casualties.

The Court of Appeal reduced the term of administrative arrest of the activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Murad Sultanli.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Vladislav and Elena Zaitsev, finding them guilty of terrorism and sabotage on the territory of the DPR.

The court has arrested Krymsk resident Alexander Lukyanov, who, according to investigators, is the purchaser of the land plot for the sale of which Yanis Budagov was accused of abuse of office.

The court fined former National Assembly member Ruben Hakobyan, finding him guilty of calling for the seizure of power.

A Melitopol resident has been arrested in the Rostov region. Investigators believe he used blogging as a cover to gather information about Russian military deployments and pass it on to Ukrainian intelligence.

A Tbilisi court has remanded in custody former head of the Georgian Security Service Grigol Liluashvili, who was detained the day before on charges of accepting large bribes.

A Moscow court has seized the property of former Rostov Region Vice Governor Vladimir Okunev and his former deputy Svetlana Shapovalova.

During the week of December 15–21, 2025, no casualties were recorded in armed or terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts of Russia. These are the results of a Caucasian Knot tally based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

A court in Slavyansk-on-Kuban deemed Ilya Sigida's publication about Putin to be disrespectful of the state, imposing a fine of 40,000 rubles. Three more administrative charges were filed against Viktor Pivovarov, assistant to the Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church – two under the same article and one for discrediting the army.

The state prosecution asked the Second Western District Military Court to sentence Ingushetia natives Batukhan Tochiyev and Ramazan Padiev to 26 and 24 years, respectively, and Baku native Robert Safaryan to 28 years. The prosecutor requested a life sentence for the perpetrator of the terrorist attack that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant.

On the eve of the anniversary of the AZAL plane crash in Kazakhstan, a monument to the victims was unveiled in Grozny. Vladimir Putin today congratulated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on his birthday. A few days before the anniversary, Aliyev declined to attend the informal CIS summit.

The investigation into the embezzlement of over 500 million rubles during the execution of a state defense contract in Dagestan has been completed, and the defendants' property has been seized.

Dozens of activists reported on social media that they had been summoned to Tbilisi City Court for "blocking the sidewalk" on Rustaveli Avenue. Despite the summonses, on the 392nd day of protests, supporters of European integration, as before, gathered outside the Georgian Parliament.

The number of tours booked to Anapa for the 2026 season has fallen by 60% compared to sales figures at the end of 2024. Hotels and other accommodation facilities are in a crisis situation comparable to the coronavirus pandemic and require urgent government support.

Russians Alina Savelyeva and Vladimir Dubovsky were denied asylum in Georgia and placed in pretrial detention on charges of illegal border crossing, which they cited as a threat of persecution in their home country. The Russians face deportation or imprisonment.

A court in Dagestan sentenced a resident of Dagestanskiye Ogni to eight years in prison for participating in a terrorist organization in Syria. According to investigators and the court, the woman was engaged in cooking and caring for the wounded.

The Tskhinvali City Court has ordered a two-month pretrial detention for activist Tamara Mearakishvili. Georgian activists have called the case fabricated and called on the country's authorities to intervene on her behalf.

The criminal case against Maksym Divnich has been dismissed, and the case against Alikhan Bersayev, another participant in the Luhansk basin conflict, for unauthorized abandonment of his military unit, has reached court, Divnich himself announced today. Prior to this, following Apti Alaudinov's statements about the threat of criminal prosecution against the blogger, appeals in support of Divnich from members of the SVO and the "Russian Community" appeared online.

Valery Tedeyev, Sergey Grigoryev, and Igor Ryzhov were killed in combat. Since the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, at least 1,599 soldiers from the Volgograd region have been officially recognized as killed.