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Caucasian militants attack power agents on their own initiative, but under the brand of the "Islamic State" (IS) (banned in Russia, – note of the "Caucasian Knot"); and the IS itself is interested to be associated with as many attacks as possible, said the experts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". They believe that many statements, in which the IS takes responsibility for armed incidents in the Caucasus, are unreliable.

After the crash in Sochi of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), a number of popular users of social networks have posted their critical comments on the victims, condemning Russia's actions in Syria. Among such authors are the journalist Bozhena Rynska and her colleague Arkady Babchenko, a veteran of two Chechen wars.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg has started communicating on ten complaints lodged from Azerbaijan in connection with violations of the right of people to have access to information about the work of state institutions. The ECtHR has provided the Azerbaijani authorities with three months to answer its questions.

The today's motion of the defence asking to allow video recording of the court session in Grozny, which considers the complaint lodged by Zhalaudi Geriev, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, against his verdict, has been again rejected by the court.

Some of the relatives of the militants killed during a counterterrorist operation (CTO) in Grozny, who were repeatedly detained on December 26, are back at large, but their family members do not exclude new detentions. A man, one of the detainees, has told about beating up a younger brother of one of the killed militants at the police station.

Today, the resort city has held a church memorial service about those who perished in the crash of Tu-154 with the participation of victims' relatives, and mourning ceremonies held in Sochi squares and at sea berths.

Tonight, relatives of the young people, killed in the counterterrorist operation (CTO) in Grozny, were urgently summoned to the police. Earlier, these relatives had been detained for a week and then released. For a few hours they are kept by the police, said their relatives.

The information about the kidnapping and application of violence to Zhalaudi Geriev, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, was not confirmed, says the statement of the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). Earlier, the court refused to send the data about Geriev's kidnapping for examination outside Chechnya, the defence has reminded.

The fuel pipeline of the Sochi Airport has not been replaced for a long time; therefore, the crashed aircraft could be filled with contaminated fuel that caused explosion of the liner’s tanks. This was stated by the aviation experts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The statement of the terrorist grouping "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russian, claiming responsibility for attacks on policemen, committed in Makhachkala and Kizilyurt on December 25, was the sixth one in Dagestan since September 2015, when the IS first reported its involvement in attacks on power agents. Typically, the IS claims more casualties among power agents as a result of its attacks.

The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has announced the awarding the name of Elizaveta Glinka, also known as Doctor Liza, who perished in the crash of the Tu-154 in Sochi, to the Republic's Children Hospital in Grozny. Valery Khalilov, the Artistic Director of the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble, who also perished in the crash, is awarded by the medal "For Merits to the Chechen Republic" posthumously.

Most of the detained relatives of the alleged militants, killed during the counterterrorist operation (CTO), conducted on December 17-18, after the attack on policemen in Grozny, returned home, local residents have confirmed. According to a woman-relative, the men from her family have left Grozny for remote villages, because of the blood feud declared to them.

The fall of the Tu-154 into the sea was preceded by a stop of the aircraft engines, said a woman-resident of Adler, who was on the coast at the time of the crash.

In the course of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus, during the week from December 19 to December 25, 2016, seven persons lost their lives; there is no information about any wounded ones. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The sending of policemen to Syria is not against the law, since the December legislative amendments allow employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to conclude short-term military contracts to "suppress the activities of international terrorist organizations outside of Russia," said the military experts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

Residents of an apartment block located in the "Makarenko" Garden Partnership have held a rally and demanded from the Mayoralty to enforce the court judgement and liquidate an unauthorized dump of soil and construction debris, which has caused a landslide on the house. However, an official of the Mayoralty said that they would appeal against the judgement.

Today, policemen took away Victor Chirikov, a Krasnodar activist, to some unknown place, said his wife.

Kirill Prisyazhnyuk, a former member of the neo-Nazi grouping "Nevograd", has been found guilty of recruiting people into the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, and sentenced to four years in prison in Chechnya.

Mekhman Guseinov, the Chairman of the Azerbaijani Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), asserts that on December 23 several people attacked him. He treats the attack as a revenge for his criticism of officials.

The judicial investigation into the case of Adnan Khuade, a Circassian activist, was over on December 23. Earlier, the court refused, with no due reason, to exclude the examination protocol of the policeman's car, drawn up with violations, from the case files. Khuade is accused of bribing the policeman, said his advocate.