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Today, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime has been introduced in the city of Nazran and in the Nazran District of Ingushetia. According to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), five militants have been killed in the course of the CTO.

By the decision of the Chechen Supreme Court (SC) Nikolai Karpyuk has been sentenced to 22 years and 6 months of imprisonment, and Stanislav Klykh – to 20 years.

Investigators have charged three former top managers of the colony located in the town of Belorechensk, Krasnodar Territory (also called Kuban by the name of the main river), with abuse of power within the case of beating inmates, one of whom died. Earlier, seven employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) were arrested.

This morning, in the village of Kasumkent of the Suleiman-Stalsky District, policemen tried to stop a suspicious man to check his documents. The man opened fire on them and was killed by return fire.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has organized an action of urgent assistance to Valentina Cherevatenko, the leader of the Union "Women of the Don", who faces criminal prosecution for failure to supply documents for inclusion of her NGO in the register of foreign agents.

Khadija Ismayilova, released from detention by the decision of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan, is ready to continue working as a journalist and struggling for the liberation of her colleagues and other activists. Meanwhile, the journalist does not agree with the court verdict and intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

On May 16-25, Mr Sètondji Roland Adjovi (Benin), the head of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and his deputy José Guevara (Mexico) attended 25 penitentiary institutions in Azerbaijan, where detainees and convicts serving their sentences are kept. The UN officials interviewed more than 80 detainees and prisoners and met government officials and activists of civil society in the cities of Baku, Ganja, and Nakhchivan.

Members of the Saveliev "Olympic settlers" family have claimed that they do not intend to leave the house put up for the auction, until the City Mayor does allocate to them a cottage to replace their house demolished because of the construction of the Olympic highway M-27. Earlier, the Saveliev family members have abandoned a three-room apartment allocated to them in a resort village of the mountain cluster.

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) has lifted charges of misappropriation and abuse of office from the journalist Khadija Ismayilova.

Yesterday, militants managed not only to mine a relay tower in the Shamil District, but also to blow it up, said a law enforcement source. In the tower's coverage area cellular communication is absent; and interruptions in TV broadcasting are observed.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon Nadezhda Savchenko, said Dmitri Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, adding that the Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Evgeny Erofeev, convicted in Kiev, had been brought to Moscow.

Within the past six months, the list run by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" of the persons deprived of freedom for political reasons, has went up to 87 persons. Out of 45 new political prisoners, five are natives of Northern Caucasus and Southern Federal District (SFD), or those, convicted in these regions.

On May 24, Yerevan hosted an action initiated by women-activists: one of them – Anna Shakhnazaryan – climbed up into a stone structure of "Singing Fountains" in Republic Square, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar has sentenced Nina Solovyova, an LGBT activist, to 10 days of administrative arrest on the charge of Nazi propaganda after she reposted on her page in a social network a video criticizing the actions of the Russian authorities in Ukraine. Today, the Krasnodar Regional Court has upheld the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar.

Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian aviator, sentenced in Russia to imprisonment, has left the airport of Rostov-on-Don on the plane. She flew to Ukraine, the Reuters reports.

The criminal case against student Alexandra Ivanova (Varvara Karaulova), accused of an attempt to join the banned terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), is fabricated, and the investigators' position is not supported by evidence. This opinion was voiced by human rights defender Ernst Chorny, who asked to release Varvara Karaulova under his guarantee.

In Dagestan, the primaries of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party did not show the level of support for candidates among voters because of the use of administrative resource. This opinion was expressed by participants of the project "Games of Journalists" in Dagestan on May 21. According to them, the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party has always used the administrative resource in the course of intra-party voting for the selection of candidates, as well as for the increase in the turnout during the voting.

In the Krasnodar Territory, the commission established under the regional administration to inspect the housing facilities of the Olympic heritage has held an inspection in Sochi. Officials have reported they will be able to prepare answers concerning only the use of housing facilities transferred to the balance of Sochi or the Krasnodar Territory. The fate of apartment houses and cottages remaining in the federal or departmental property remains unknown.

On May 24, Bairam Mamedov and Giyas Ibragimov, youth activists, arrested in Azerbaijan, were questioned by an official of the Baku Prosecutor's Office in connection with their complaints about torture. According to their advocate, the young people complained about the distortion of their testimonies.

Khabas Kugotov, a resident of the village of Svetlovodskoe, Zolsky District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), born in 1989, has stated that power agents had tortured him and forced to incriminate himself.