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Khasan Khalitov, a blogger living in Turkey, has refused to apologize to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, despite the threats to publish obscene photos of the blogger's sister. Social network users considered it unworthy for Muslims to humiliate women.

The allegation of Ramzan Kadyrov, who classified Igor Kalyapin, the head of the “Committee Against Torture”*, and journalist Elena Milashina as terrorists, will not be followed by criminal prosecution of those people, but the risk of unlawful pressure on them has increased, human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and advocate Marina Dubrovina point out.

It is useless to complain about the Ramzan Kadyrov’s allegation that Igor Kalyapin, the head of the “Committee against Torture”*, is an accomplice of terrorists, since the leader of Chechnya always get away with it, the human rights defender explains.

According to video from surveillance cameras, law enforcers took Zarema Musaeva out of the house entrance without warm clothes. The elderly woman was walking through the snow without shoes, Sergey Babinets, a lawyer of the “Committee Against Torture”*, emphasized.

During the week of January 17-23, 2022, no killed or wounded in the ongoing armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the “Caucasian Knot” based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The head of Chechnya has labelled Igor Kalyapin, a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, and Yelena Milashina, a "Novaya Gazeta" journalist, as terrorists' helpers and called to detain them.

Khasan Khalitov, a blogger living in Turkey, has received a photo of his naked sister, who was abducted in Chechnya, accompanied by a demand to stop criticizing Chechen authorities.

Zarema Musaeva is kept in the special detention centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya; she was detained because of insulting and attacking a policeman in Grozny. The court arrested her for 15 days, Akhmed Dudaev, the Minister of Information and Press of Chechnya, has informed.

After the abduction of Zarema Musaeva, her son, Abubakar Yangulbaev, said that about 15 members of the Yangulbaev and Musaev families living in Grozny have stopped communicating.

Kidnapping of a human rights defender Yangulbaev’s mother by Chechen law enforcers in Nizhny Novgorod; resignation of Armen Sarkisyan from the post of President of Armenia; strike of social workers in Georgia; public outcry after a conflict between a native of Dagestan and passengers of a bus in Moscow; report of the law enforcement bodies about the liquidation of crypto farms in Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 18-23, 2022, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

The departure of the former federal judge, Saidi Yangulbaev, and his daughter Aliya from Russia was caused by the threats voiced out by Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, Natalya Kurekina, the press secretary of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT)*, has stated.

The health condition of the Azerbaijani journalist, Polad Aslanov, who has been on a hunger strike for 18 days, demanding a revision of his case, has sharply worsened, his wife has informed.

The head of Chechnya has accused the family of the human rights defender, Abubakar Yangulbaev, of organizing an attack on a former Chechen law enforcer in Turkey and calling for terrorism; in his turn, Abubakar has asked the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to check Kadyrov's threats for extremism.

Ilham Gussein, a member of the Presidium of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was summoned to the Azeri General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), where he was issued a verbal warning in connection with his publication on the Facebook. The PFPA treats it as pressure on the activist and on the party as a whole.

The authorities of Chechnya have made kidnappings of the relatives of their opponents a constant practice, but the abduction of Zarema Yangulbaeva is something special, since she is the wife of a retired judge. Federal authorities must interfere, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

Most likely, law enforcers from Nizhny Novgorod had known about the pre-planned abduction of Zarema Yangulbaeva by Chechen policemen, but they didn't dare to oppose them, since law enforcers in Chechnya, while bypassing Russian laws, obey directly the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and not the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

Vladislav Kramskoy, a journalist, has stated that he was beaten up by law enforcers after he asked them to show their IDs and introduce themselves. As a result, he not only received traumas, but a protocol was drawn up against him for disobeying a law enforcer's lawful demand.

German authorities have extradited to Russia Osman Makhachev, who worked as an adviser to the former head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, and now is accused under the case of a large bribe.

When considering Polad Aslanov's case at the Supreme Court (SC), the Azeri General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) may advocate for a mitigation of his punishment, but one should not expect the Polad's acquittal, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

Teya Tsulukiani, the Georgian Minister of Culture, is firing employees of her subordinate entities who have expressed dissatisfaction with her policies, protesters in Tbilisi have stated, adding that nearly 1500 people signed the petition demanding Tsulukiani's resignation.