News

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev will not fly to Moscow for the festive events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory, the Russian presidential aide reports. Amid growing tensions in the Russian-Azerbaijani relations, an Ilham Aliev’s visit to Moscow would be critically perceived by the Azerbaijani society, a “Caucasian Knot” blogger notes.

The US Embassy in Georgia has disseminated the information about possible explosions in three shopping centres in Tbilisi. In response, the Georgian State Security Service has called on diplomats not to publish any similar messages without the consent of the country’s law enforcement bodies.

Azerbaijani opposition activist Tofig Yagublu has started a dry hunger strike because he can no longer drink water. The “Musavat” Party has called a meeting to discuss actions to save the activist.

In Kuban (Krasnodar Territory), Andrei Kolontaevsky, a deputy division head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) branch for the Krasnoarmeisky District, has been declared wanted. The activists from the village of Poltavskaya, who are fighting against the garbage dump, have noted that Kolontaevsky had waged repressions against them.

A new administrative case against the journalist Mziya Amaglobeli has arrived in the Batumi City Court. The reason for drawing up the administrative protocol was the poster she pasted on the wall of a building during this January protest.

The attack in Makhachkala and other recent armed incidents in Dagestan are only indirectly related, although they stem from common premises that authorities have failed to eliminate over the years of fighting the underground – social injustice and legal problems.

The heads of nine villages in the Babayurt District of Dagestan failed to raise the Russian flags on their buildings and received administrative fines.

The official procedure for renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad, which President Putin “promised to think about,” involves a long sequence of bureaucratic steps, but can be implemented without a referendum.

Tonight, journalist Ulviya Ali (Guseinova) has been detained in Azerbaijan. Ulviya Ali became the 11th journalist detained in the “Meydan TV” case.

The 205 persons returned to Russia as part of a prisoners of war (POWs) exchange with Ukraine include servicemen from seven regions of the North-Caucasian and Southern Federal Districts (NCFD and SFD).

Shortly after unofficial sources reported a search conducted in his home, Ullubij Khanmurzaev announced the conclusion of a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the expected dispatch to the special military operation (SMO) zone in Ukraine.

The kidnappings of relatives of those Chechen residents who fled from being sent to Ukraine are consistent with the practices of republic's authorities to force them to sign military contracts and punish the relatives of those guilty.

The decision of the Russian authorities to deport Azer Badamov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, has been made after his harsh statements addressed to Russian State Duma member Nikolai Valuev.

When commenting on a question from a Chechen news agency concerning rumours about his possible resignation, Ramzan Kadyrov has stated that he “asks on his own will” to be relieved of his post.

Since the beginning of 2025, there have been three shootouts with law enforcers in Dagestan, while two similar incidents have been recorded during all of 2024, with one more in May 2023 and one more in May 2022.

After attacking the policemen, criminals fled in the Volkswagen car belonging to the road-and-patrol (DPS) service. The local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported that two of the attackers were killed, without specifying how many of them took part in the attack.

Tofig Yagublu, an Azerbaijani oppositionist, who has been on a hunger strike for 35 days, was brought to a meeting with his relatives in a wheelchair; his vision and speech have deteriorated greatly, but a doctor is not allowed to examine him. His relatives have doubted that he’ll be able to attend the hearing of the appeal complaint against his verdict.

The authorities’ assurances about success in cleaning the beaches of Anapa, as well as the decision to close the beaches in the city, are not supported by research data, environmentalists claim. The lack of unbiased information provokes mistrust, and the closure of the beaches threatens the survival of small tourism businesses, entrepreneurs emphasize.

More than eighty human rights defenders, activists, and cultural figures from the republics of Northern Caucasus have sent an appeal to the President of Russia with a call to stop the adoption of the draft law “On Repatriation to the Russian Federation”. It will become an obstacle to repatriation of people and will weaken the loyalty of the diasporas, activists believe.

In the city of Frolovo, residents complained about severe environmental problems resulting from the operation of the electrometallurgical plant. The management of the plant claims that the environmental situation has improved, and the local authorities have expressed their concern. At the same time, one of the activists has been invited to the local police department to give an explanation.