News

In the morning, protesters gathered near a church in Yerevan to prevent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from attending the Christmas service. Nikol Pashinyan did not come to the church, and his press secretary explained the Prime Minister's absence by the epidemiological situation.

MMA fighter Khamzat Chimaev flew to Chechnya after he had cancelled a fight at the UFC tournament because of his positive COVID-19 test. However, according to posts on social networks, at the meetings with Khamzat Chimaev, Ramzan Kadyrov, other athletes, and relatives of the MMA fighter neglected the mask regime in force in the republic.

After a report about the murder of Vali Abduragimov, who tried to resist drug trafficking, some social network users have noted that law enforcers, and not activists, are to fight against drug dealers.

The Azerbaijani side does not comply with the terms of the peace agreement and sends its armed forces deep into the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, states Vitaly Balasanyan, Secretary of the Security Council of the unrecognized republic.

Five Nagorno-Karabakh militaries and two civilians are being held captive in Azerbaijan, while the unrecognized republic keeps two Azerbaijani civilians, said Ismail Akhundov, the head of the Commission on Prisoners' Affairs.

At the positions of Karabakh militaries in the Agdam District, 528 ordnances, including 27 shells with white phosphorus, were found and neutralized, the Azerbaijani Demining Agency has informed.

The special intelligence agents, whom journalists have linked to the attempt on Alexei Navalny, had flown to Northern Caucasus before the poisoning of the militant leader, Doku Umarov, in 2013, and in 2017, during the preparations of his remains for transportation, the materials of Khristo Grozev, a Bellingcat's investigator, assert.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani parties are coordinating the location of border posts in the village of Shurnukh; the issue of creating a neutral zone is still open, said Akop Arshakyan, the head of the village.

On the eve of the Orthodox Christmas, liturgies were held in two operating churches in Stepanakert. Believers prayed for the wounded, killed and missing military servicemen during the Karabakh conflict aggravation.

Ilham Aliev, Azerbaijani President, has ordered to return the city of Shusha to its historical appearance, restore mosques and return the Days of Vagif's Poetry and the "Khary Bulbul" Festival back to the city.

The bodies of the owner of the house, in which alleged militants were killed on October 13, 2020, in Grozny, his pregnant wife and brother, were handed over to their relatives about a month after their detention, the "Novaya Gazeta" writes.

The Ingush Council of Teips (family clans) expressed the condolences to relatives of Chechen policeman Magomed Djabrailov, who was killed in Grozny. It was also noted that the incident was being used to stir up ethnic hatred. The above statement was made after the threats voiced by Chechen MP Magomed Khanbiev against Sarazhdin Sultygov, a member of the Ingush teip.

An international airport in Fizuli will reduce the travel time to Shusha for foreign tourists, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev announces. According to him, the take-off runway is to be constructed this year.

A widow of Vladimir Tskaev, who died after an interrogation at the Vladikavkaz ROVD (District Interior Division), wait for an apology from the President of South Ossetia for his statement about a mother of a Vladikavkaz citizen. Anatoly Bibilov compared the stories of Vladimir Tskaev and Inal Djabiev and condemned the behaviour of the latter's mother.

Mikhail Litvin, a popular Instagram blogger, announced a luxury SUV as a prize by inviting his followers to subscribe to the users he indicated, including relatives and close associates of Ramzan Kadyrov.

Today, in Yerevan, several dozen residents have come to a protest action in front of the government building. They demand from the authorities to report the information concerning the soldiers missed in action in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Employees of the forensic medical examination service have conducted examinations of the bodies or remains of 3360 military servicemen, who perished in Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, more than 2500 forensic genetic examinations have been conducted, Arsen Torosyan, the Armenian Minister of Public Health, wrote on December 4 in his Facebook page.

Relatives of the Timurziev brothers should have immediately express their condolences to the family of the deceased policeman, and not voice their doubts out in the video message, some Instagram users believe. Other commentators treat families' reconciliation as a must, since relatives should not respond for actions of members of their teips (family clans).

Temporary housing has been provided to nine families who were forced to leave their homes in the village of Shurnukh after the transfer of part thereof to Azerbaijan. The owners of three more houses left for their relatives. Some of the villagers set fire to their houses before leaving.

Busses have brought 188 more refugees from Yerevan to Stepanakert; making the total number of returnees 47,475, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) informed on January 4.