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The actions of the attackers on a minivan with journalists on the Ingush-Chechen border should be qualified as an attempt to interfere with their activities, said the lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". They expressed their confidence that in the process of the inquiry the initial articles will be re-qualified to graver ones.

Russian law enforcement bodies have reacted to the news of Turkish media that Kristina Tikhonova, a native of Dagestan, allegedly involved in the organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, intended to commit a terror act in Istanbul.

The Ukrainian aviator Nadezhda Savchenko has announced, after meeting her advocate in the SIZO (pre-trial prison), that she would start drinking water, but she would continue her hunger strike. Earlier, conflicting information was received on Savchenko's dry hunger strike.

Two Dagestani freelance journalists, a young woman being one of them, told the "Caucasian Knot" that they were beaten up today at the opening ceremony of a sports ground in Makhachkala by a senior republic's official.

The Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC) has addressed Yuri Chaika and Alexander Bastrykin, the heads of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) and the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), accordingly, with a request to personally control the inquiry into the attacks on rights defenders and journalists in Ingushetia.

The Russian authorities must ensure the attraction to liability of those involved in the pogrom of the office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) and the attack on journalists and rights defenders in Ingushetia, said Johann Beer, the head of the "Reporters without Borders" (RWB). The past similar incidents are still unpunished, he said.

They plan to build a monument, in the village of Uchkeken of the Malokarachay District of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), to the Karachay hundred, which made a part of the Caucasian Cavalry Division during the First World War. The monument is expected to be opened before the end of the year.

The statements of Yusup Djaparov that he does not understand the case files, translated into the Tsudakh dialect, cannot be considered reasonable, linguists said. Experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) have stated that Djaparov should not have difficulties in understanding the texts, since the differences of the above two dialects of the Dargin language are minimal.

On the eve of the Novruz Bayram holiday, the Azerbaijani Pardons Commission under the President of the country has reviewed about 400 applications. Positive decisions have been made in over 300 of them, and will be submitted to the President.

The attacks on the members of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) and its office in Ingushetia were preceded by the pogrom of the JMG office in Grozny on June 3, 2015, and a fire therein on December 13, 2014. Nils Mujzhnieks, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, has condemned the attack on rights defenders and journalists.

Members of the Kurdish community in Armenia have called on the international community to stop contacts with Turkey. According to their story, the Turkish government is supplying the militants of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), which is banned in Russia, with weapons, and also uses the army to intimidate Kurds.

Members of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under Ramzan Kadyrov could not meet the journalists and rights defenders, who suffered in the attack near the Chechen-Ingush border. At the hospital, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) were talking to the victims at that moment, said Kheda Saratova, a Chechen rights defender.

Armed persons arrived at the headquarters of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders in Ingushetia in five cars and disabled all the surveillance cameras, said Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

Eight rights defenders and journalists, who were in the van of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) during the attack, as well as the driver, were in need of medical care, said the Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

The employees on the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Ivan Zhiltsov and Ekaterina Vanslova, and European journalists Oistan Vindstad and Maria Persson Löfgren suffered in an attack on a minibus of the Free Mobile Group (FMG) in Chechnya, said Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer of the CPT.

The Union "Women of the Don" has been excluded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) from the register of foreign agents, but the fine of 300,000 roubles, paid by the Union under the court judgement, has not been repaid. The money can be returned only upon the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the case, said Valentina Cherevatenko, the Chair of the Union.

The Shkolny Lane in the village of Zhankhoteko has been renamed in memory of the journalist Kazbek Gekkiev, who was killed in 2012. A memorial plaque has been installed at the school, where Gekkiev studied.

A complaint against the judgement of the Astrakhan District Court to deny the conditional early relieve (CER) to Khaiser Djemilev has been lodged to the Astrakhan Regional Court, said the advocate Nikolai Polozov.

The court in Makhachkala has ruled to place Murad Valiev, Gadji Ramazanov, Sharip Khabibov and Magomed Magomedov, suspected of involvement in "Hizb ut-Tahrir", a terrorist organization banned in Russia, in custody.

Experts of the Dargin language have stated at the court that the differences in dialects cannot prevent Yusup Djaparov, a nephew of Said Amirov, from understanding the content of the case files. In this regard, the court has rejected the defence's request to make a new translation.