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Today, at the public meeting in Tskhinvali, Eduard Kokoity announced his resignation as President of South Ossetia and handed over presidential powers to Vadim Brovtsev, Prime Minister, who was appointed the acting head of the republic.

Today, a protest rally against the results of the elections to the Russian State Duma was held in Moscow.

In Dagestan, participants of the protest rally against the results of the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation conducted on December 4 report on detention of protesters, including members of the "Yabloko" Party.

Today, opposite the railway station in Sochi, a rally of people discontented with the results of the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation was held. During the protest action, the human rights defender Sergey Basmanov, Director of the organization "Defence of Citizens' Rights and Interests", was detained.

In Volgograd, the action of citizens, who consider the outcomes of the elections to the State Duma held on December 4 to be falsified, passed without incidents. Policemen and Cossack patrols were on duty around the perimeter of the square at a large distance. No state officials came out to meet the protesters.

Today, in Yerevan, in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, a protest action was held. The protesters urged the Russian authorities to release opposition members detained during the protest actions after the elections to the State Duma.

In Makhachkala, law enforcement agents have just detained Idris Yusupov, a local resident, participation in a rally against kidnapping and arbitrariness of power agents, which was held in the capital of Dagestan on November 25. Idris Yusupov himself denied his participation in the rally.

The Chechen regional public organization "Mothers' Alert", which has earlier declared its participation in the rally "For Fair Elections" on December 10 in Moscow, was unable to participate in the protest action due to lack of money to purchase tickets to Moscow, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Zainab Mezhidova, the head of the organization.

Alla Djioeva, ex-candidate for the presidency in South Ossetia, intends to nominate herself for the election on March 25; she is ready to cooperate with Vadim Brovtsev, and she intends to seek the release of political prisoners. This was reported by Alla Djioeva to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The radical methods used by militants are supported by 12 percent of pupils and students of Dagestan, regarding them as the key to solving the existing local problems. These are the results of the social opinion poll conducted in November by the monitoring group for the youth environment of the Republic of Dagestan. Experts believe that many people in Dagestan view the "Forest Jamaats" as the only alternative to the ruling corrupt power and treat the specialized religious education as a barrier to radicalization.

An armed attack was committed in Nazran, Ingushetia, on Sofa Esmurzieva, Deputy Minister of Public Health; with a gunshot wound in her leg she was taken to hospital in Vladikavkaz.

Tamara Karastelyova, Director of the Novorossiysk Human Rights Committee (NHRC) and human rights defender died on December 3 in Georgia, where she lived for the last two years and took her treatment of acute leukaemia.

On December 7, Makhachkala held the sixth cultural and sports festival of children with disabilities under the motto "From victories in sports to victories in life".

The next court session on the case of Andrei Bykov, one of the figurants in the massacre in the village of Kuschevskaya will take place on December 12. The official representative of the Krasnodar Territorial Court has confirmed that Bykov's case is considered in special order.

The Presnya Court of Moscow has extended till February 26, 2012, the arrest of Magomed Suleimanov, accused of killing former colonel Yuri Budanov.

Within the two years that have elapsed after the Russia's Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the Rostov Regional Court on recognition of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog and a number of their publications to be extremist, the religious organization has documented and published on the Internet reports about more than 1000 incidents involving violations of the rights of believers of this confession in Russia.

On December 8, at the court session, where the case of the former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Nazir Guliev and Ilyas Nalgiev, accused of torturing detainees and committing other crimes, is considered, interrogation protocols of witnesses and victims were announced.

The Baku police have started an inquiry on the application of journalists of the "Khural" newspaper about the threats coming to them from unknown persons. Avaz Zeinalov, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper remains in custody on charges of bribe-taking.

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of the Russian Federation is actively disseminating the experience of fighting militants' supporters in Chechnya, as the most efficient, among the power agents in all other regions of Northern Caucasus, Artyom Melnikov, the head of the GPO Department for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), said today.

Without a damage to the environment of Abkhazia delivery of building materials for construction of Olympic objects is possible only from the area of the Kodor river (Ochamchira district), President of Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab declared promising to disallow industrial delivery of inert materials from other rivers.