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Igor Stenin, the head of the "Astrakhan Russians" movement, who was detained by FSB agents on charges of inciting extremism, has been released under recognizance not to leave.

George Soros, the founder and the chairman of the "Open Society" Foundation, has called on President Ilham Aliev to ease the pressure on civil society and to remove barriers to activities of registered charities.

The Centre for Media Rights (CMR) will assist in appealing against the verdict passed to the Rostov journalist and blogger Sergey Reznik, said Galina Arapova, the director of the Centre.

A native of Ingushetia Alikhan Tochiev, who was killed in Nalchik, was kidnapped two days before the special operation in the city; and his body had traces of torture, said his relatives. They deny the authorities' version about Alikhan's links with militants from Syria and do not believe that he was killed in the armed clash.

The charge against Valery Permyakov, a Russian soldier, who confessed of a mass murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, may be supplemented by the article about an attempt to illegally cross the state border, Gevork Kostanyan, the General Public Prosecutor (GPP) of Armenia, said at today's parliamentary hearings.

Today, at the trial of journalist Seymour Khazi, accused of hooliganism, the state prosecutor, in his closing remarks, asked the Apsheron District Court of Azerbaijan to sentence Khazi to six years in prison.

The Lenin District Court of Rostov-on-Don has found the journalist and blogger Sergey Reznik guilty of false denunciation and insult of officials and sentenced him to three years in a general security colony, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

On January 21, agents of the Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB) detained Igor Stenin, the leader of the "Astrakhan Russians" movement, as Pavel Chikov, the head of the "Agora" association has reported.

In Quarter 4 of 2014, the number of victims of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus has increased by 118% compared with Quarter 3. In October-December, 168 people were killed and wounded there; while in July-September, the figure was 77. In Quarter 4, Chechnya was ahead of Dagestan in the number of victims.

A petition demanding an inquiry into the murder of the journalist from Nalchik Timur Kuashev has been posted on the Internet. For 13 days, it was signed by 471 persons. Today, it was signed by Valery Khatazhukov, the head of the Public Human Rights Centre of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR). Organizers plan to send the document to investigating bodies.

On January 21, in Astrakhan, ten supporters of Alexei Navalny held an information picket. It was sanctioned by the authorities; and there were no incidents during the two-hour action.

Valery Permyakov, a regular soldier of the 102nd Russian military base, accused of massacring a family in the city of Gyumri, whose interrogation was conducted on January 21 by Armenian investigators, pled guilty on the charges, presented to him by the Investigating Committee (IC) of Armenia.

The Human Rights Centre "Memorial" has published a report "Chechens in Russia", prepared jointly with the Committee "Civil Assistance" after three years of work. The document uses specific examples to consider the situation with criminal prosecution of residents of Chechnya, status of women in the republic, corruption and insecurity of property.

The arrested Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was placed for one day into the dungeon of SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1 as punishment for publishing her open letter in the media. The incident occurred on January 15, but we learnt about it only today, said the lawyer Yalchin Imanov.

Today, Agvan Ovsepyan and Alexander Bastrykin, the heads of the Investigating Committee of Armenia and Russia, have signed an agreement establishing a coordination centre to investigate the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri.

The participants of the today's rally in the settlement of Nardaran near Baku have resolutely condemned the publication of caricatures on Prophet Muhammad and manifestations of Islamophobia in the West. In the course of the protest action they burned down the flags of France, Israel, United States and Armenia.

The six-month-old baby Sergey Avetisyan was buried today in the city of Gyumri. People put hundreds of white roses, toys and the baby's portrait onto the grave.

According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), at night on January 21, Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime at the contact line 300 times. As a result of the shelling, one soldier of the NKR's Defence Army was killed, and another soldier was wounded, the NKR's MoD reports.

Dagestan starts selling mobile phones for Muslims. A number of members of the Muslim community were delighted by a new gadget, and others found it not quite appropriate.

According to the command centre of the antiterrorist operation (ATO) of Ukraine, three battalion tactical groups and artillery battalion have approached four villages of the Rostov Region near the Ukrainian-Russian border. This was reported by Andrei Lysenko, the ATO speaker.