News

A DPS (road-and-patrol service) checkpoint where a shootout has taken place today is located on the outskirts of Kurchaloi, far from residential buildings, a local resident says.

In the Kurchaloi District, policemen were attacked and shelled by two residents of the villages of Tsotsi-Yurt and Oktyabrskoye. The law enforcers were not wounded, the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports.

Power supply has been restored in 24 cities, towns, and villages of Nagorno-Karabakh, where more than 12,000 people live, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) reports.

Three more Azerbaijani citizens are still being kept by the Armenian side as prisoners of war, the authorities of Azerbaijan report. The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia announced the negotiations with Baku concerning the fate of 73 soldiers of the Defence Army who were missed in action in the Hadrut District.

The so-called "gray zones", free from all conflict parties in Nagorno-Karabakh, are contrary to the principles of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and can become bait for armed formations, Azerbaijani political analysts believe. The creation of neutral zones is beneficial to Armenia and Russia, but Baku will not agree to this, Yerevan experts are sure.

The armed incident in the Kurchaloi District, in which two unknown persons were killed, was preceded by a December 16 counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Achkhoi-Martan District.

The video of the incident near the FSB building in the village of Uchkeken fails to confirm that the casualty had intended to harm the employees, a criminologist believes. The video could have been staged, since the conduct of a counterterrorist operation (CTO) is beneficial to law enforcers, lawyers have suggested.

The villages of Khin Shen and Mets Shen of Nagorno-Karabakh were unblocked following the results of negotiations of Russian peacemakers with Azerbaijan. Negotiations are underway to withdraw Azerbaijani militaries out of the village of Ekhtsaokh.

Russian peacemakers have helped Armenian militaries to escape the cordoning near the villages of Khin Takher and Khtsaberd, the Armenian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

Law enforcers' illegal violence and repressions push young people to the path of radicalization; and as a result they join the underground, Oleg Orlov, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has commented on the story of Kazbek Baidulaev, a native of a Chechen village.

About 60 military servicemen disappeared in the vicinity of the village of Khtsaberd in the Gadrut District, Artak Beglaryan, the Ombudsperson, has stated. In his turn, Araik Arutyunyan, the president of the unrecognized republic, has stressed that the actions of the Azerbaijani Army are directed not so much against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh as against the Russian peacemakers.

The governor of the Shirak Region of Armenia has met local residents who had blocked roads demanding to release their relatives and fellow countrymen from Azerbaijani captivity. The protesters believe that the Armenian authorities are passive.

Suspected militant Kazbek Baidulaev threw a grenade at law enforcers after they requested him to surrender. The suspect was killed by return fire, investigators reported.

Dozens of soldiers from the Shirak District of Armenia were captured in the Hadrut District of Nagorno-Karabakh, protesters claim with reference to some videos posted on the Internet. According to a source from the Defence Army, a group of Armenian soldiers was cordoned off, and only a few dozen of them managed to break through.

In Tskhinvali, about 50 people have stayed to spend the night in a square, where relatives and friends of Inal Djabiev are holding a round-the-clock protest action. The main demands of the protesters remain unchanged: the resignation of the General Prosecutor and the punishment of the persons guilty for the Inal Djabiev's death.

The "Akhmat" fight club will not be able to attract sponsors' funds from abroad and invite foreign fighters because of the US sanctions, while the "Akhmat" football club (FC) will be less affected by sanctions, sports observers suggest.

In fact, the villages of Khin Takher and Khtsaberd in the Hadrut District of Nagorno-Karabakh stay abandoned, military expert Alexander Golts notes. According to expert Vladimir Yevseev, it is too early and unsafe for people to return to the destroyed villages. The expert also adds that a "gray zone" should be created to prevent such incidents.

The counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in the Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya, in which law enforcers liquidated an alleged militant, became the third in Chechnya since the start of the year. The previous CTO was conducted in Grozny in October.

The communication with soldiers of several military posts set up in the vicinity of the villages of Khin Takher and Khtsaberd has been lost; searching for them is underway, the Nagorno-Karabakh's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

Kazbek Baidulaev, a native of the Chechen village of Yandi, whose murder in a counterterrorist operation (CTO), conducted in the Achkhoi-Martan District, was announced by Ramzan Kadyrov, was earlier named among those killed on October 11. According to law enforcers, the man perished in a shootout in the Sernovodsk District.