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The refusal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to issue a foreign passport to Ali Kerimli, the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), which means an actual ban on his travels abroad, has political motives, as in the cases with other critics of the authorities, rights defenders are sure.

Activists held a series of solo pickets outside the building of the Permanent Mission of Dagestan in Moscow, demanding the release of the Dagestan journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev.

The Georgian Prosecutor's Office has closed the Temirlan Machalikashvili's murder case right at the moment, when investigators indicated inconsistencies in law enforcers' testimonies, the Human Rights Monitoring Centre has noted.

Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered law enforcers to find and punish those residents of Chechnya who spread information about kidnappings and detentions in the republic. His order to search for "gossipers" in the around-the-clock regime was issued after publications about the detention of 25 residents of Chechnya for a photo collage with the head of the republic.

In North Ossetia, officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) held a preventive conversation with three young people who recorded a video of the female student's apology for a dance. The verification of their actions is underway, the police report. A mother of the student thanked the law enforcement bodies for protection.

Russia did not fulfil the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to pay 100 million euros to Georgian citizens deported in 2006, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili recalled at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has approved the indictment in a case on misappropriation of more than a million US dollars, in which Serzh Sargsyan, the third President of Armenia, and four other persons are involved as defendants.

Journalist Anna Kabisova and psychologist Alyona Ramonova initiated a flash mob with the hashtag #I'm_not_an_ideal_dancer to support a female student who was subjected to harassment after a public dance.

President Salome Zurabishvili agreed to host a Russian delegation led by Sergey Lavrov at the Council of Europe's events in Georgia this May. The authorities are to comply with the Council of Europe (CE) regulations, but this will harm them in the eyes of voters, believe political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

In Armenia, the hate rhetoric has become a serious threat to democracy; it is used by both the former and current authorities, experts said in their comments on the parliament's decision to set up a working group to combat the spread of hatred in the country. The creation of the above working group was initiated by one of the MPs from the "My Step" ruling bloc.

Djambulat Umarov, the Chechen Minister for National Policy, has denied the fact that residents of the republic had been detained for disseminating a collage with Kadyrov. However, the minister's slip of the tongue about the need to "warn a dozen troublemakers and scoundrels" means that there had really been detentions of Chechen residents, the rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

Three residents of Chechnya have spoken at a sitting of the Legal Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and told their personal stories about human rights violations in the republic. Oleg Orlov, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", told the PACE that a totalitarian regime has been established in Chechnya.

Mikhail Ignatiev, the head of Chuvashia, was expelled from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party after his call to "crackdown" journalists for criticism, while the demand of the head of Chechnya to "kill, imprison and intimidate" authors of negative materials was ignored by the above ruling party.

The December 2019 "Employment and Unemployment Rating in the Russian Federation", published by the Federal State Statistics Service, has shown that in the last quarter of 2019, the worst employment situation was observed in the regions of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

Temirlan Machalikashvili, a resident of Pankisi, was shot dead by law enforcers, when he tried to detonate a grenade; the inquiry into the alleged abuse of powers has been stopped, the Prosecutor's Office (PO) of Georgia has stated today.

Narek Malyan, the head of the "Veto" Socio-Political Movement, has been detained in Yerevan. His supporters are sure that the detention is politically motivated.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that in 2008, Anatoly Ataev, a resident of Krasnodar, was unfoundedly left in SIZO (pre-trial prison) after a court had pronounced a decision to release him. The ECtHR obliged the Russian authorities to compensate the man for moral harm.

Cultural workers, scientists, journalists, human rights defenders, and activists signed an open letter to the administration of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with the demand to release Ingush activist Zarifa Sautieva. The appeal posted on January 27 was signed by 171 people.

Djambulat Umarov, Chechen Minister of National Policy, declared inaccurate the reports about the detention of 25 Chechen residents for disseminating a photo collage with Ramzan Kadyrov. Meanwhile, the Chechen minister confirmed the authorities' willingness to "teach a lesson" to people disseminating such photo collages, residents of the republic note.

Aslan Bzhaniya, the leader of the Abkhaz opposition, is ready to present to the Prosecutor's Office the evidence of his poisoning before the presidential election in 2019. Earlier, the General Prosecutor's of Abkhazia questioned the version about the poisoning of the politician.