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In the third and final reading the Georgian parliament has adopted the amendment to the Constitution that restricts the president's powers. Under this amendment, the president will not be able to form the government without the consent of the parliament.

Aslan Cherkesov, convicted for the murder of Yegor Sviridov, a fan of the "Spartak" FC, refused from his Russian citizenship, and was then placed in the "loony bin", his mother Sonya Cherkesova said in her video appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov.

Today, the court that is dealing with the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, has questioned the witnesses invited by the defence of the defendant Rasul Kudaev; among them – Nadezhda Kevorkova, the observer of the "Russia Today".

Murad Aliev, a resident of Dagestan, deemed kidnapped, was detained and is kept at the IVS (temporary isolation facility) of Kizilyurt city under a pseudonym, says his advocate Sapiyat Magomedova.

As a result of rising water in the Rostov Region, 136 houses inhabited by 223 people were flooded, the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) reports. Other 1741 households with a population of 3837 people are partly flooded.

Sergey Mitrokhin, the leader of the "Yabloko" Party, has demanded from the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia Vladimir Churov to cancel the results of the election of the Mayor of Anapa. According to observers of the "Yabloko", there were ballot throw-in cases during the voting in at least ten out of total of 68 polling stations.

During the week from March 18 to March 24, 2013, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus affected at least 22 people; of them, eight persons were killed and 14 more wounded. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Election of Anapa Mayor; three-day-long special operation near Makhachkala; reconsideration by court in Moscow of Budanov's murder case; end of receiving nominees from political forces of Armenia for the Board of Elders of Yerevan; dismissal by court in Stavropol of the lawsuit against the ban on hijabs in schools; adoption of law on possible cancellation by regions of direct elections of governors, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of March 18-24, 2013, prepared by the "CaucasianKnot".

In Volgograd, the participants of today's picket in defence of children's rights have moved a number of demands to the authorities, including provision of accessible school training and opening of rehabilitation centres, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

On the day of vernal equinox, Dagestan marked Novruz Bayram marking the beginning of spring. Many areas of the republic hosted celebrations culminating with a ritual fire.

Bodies of five suspected militants have been found in the place of a special operation in the Dagestani village of Semender. During the fight, two riot police agents were killing and six more were wounded, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by the spokesman of the Department for Dagestan of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree to expel Akhmed Bilalov, the former chairman of the board of directors of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Resorts of Northern Caucasus", from the governmental commission on socio-economic development of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

The International Partnership Group with Azerbaijan (IPGA) has expressed concern about the recent arrests of journalists and activists of social and political organizations, and has urged the authorities to stop persecuting people for realization of the right to freedom of expression.

Relatives of Magomedkhabib Magomedaliev, the chairman of the district assembly of the Untsukul District of Dagestan, who had been blocked by power agents in his house during the special operation, still cannot locate him and asked for help to the head of the republic.

The MPs of the State Duma have passed in the third and final reading the law giving the regions the power to determine the procedure of electing their governors.

The decision on the claim of defamation lodged by Khachik Khachatryan, the owner of the Yerevan poultry factory, to the newspaper "Zhokhovurd" and its correspondent Sonia Grigoryan will be made on March 27, as Judge Ruben Apinyan said during his consideration of the lawsuit.

The Georgian party has denied the information that the ship "Aydar" sailing to Turkey from Abkhazia was detained in international waters and escorted to the port of Poti. According to the Georgian party, the ship could not continue its way because of a storm.

The Georgian parliament has adopted in the second reading the draft constitutional amendments, aimed at partially restricting the presidential powers. Georgian political analysts believe that in the case of the final adoption of the amendments the power to dismiss the government and dissolve the parliament will be beyond Saakashvili's powers.

The car of Victoria Sopoleva, the chair of the public movement "People's Stroykontrol", was fired on March 22 from a traumatic pistol in the yard of a house in Lavochkin Street of the Voroshilov District of Volgograd, the woman herself told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

The Taganrog observers over the election of Anapa Mayor were forced to return home after their buses were stopped by GIBDD (traffic police) inspectors, who also took away the number plates from the buses.