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Today, on January 9, it is 52 years after passing decree on restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ChI ASSR), which was abolished in 1944 after deportation of Chechens and Ingushes to Kazakhstan and Middle Asia. Now, Chechnya marks this date as a national holiday.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Cyril will visit Georgia despite the existing political problems between the two countries. This was stated by Archbishop of Volokolam Hillarion, head of the Division for Foreign Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchy. He has noted that spirituals have nothing to do with politics; on the contrary, the churches will bring the Russian and Georgian nations closer together.

At night on January 7, in the Urus-Martan District Chechnya, which is still under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, armed people set on fire two small shops, which provoked fire in a number of kiosks located nearby. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from residents of the village of Gekhi, where the incident took place.

Today, the first direct air flight from Tbilisi to Moscow after the August 2008 conflict in South Ossetia was accomplished. The craft left the Tbilisi International Airport for Moscow at 12:30 a.m. The airline - "Airzena - Georgian Airways" - received a permit from the Russian Ministry of Transports to make flights also on January 9 and 10.

Today, Gail Mamedov, Judge of the Baku Appeal Court, made a decision to postpone consideration of the complaint lodged by young bloggers Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli till January 22. The reason was in the need to ensure participation of the victims - Babek Guseinov and Vusal Mamedov - in the session.

On January 8, the square adjoining the monument to Commander Vardan Mamikonyan in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, was the venue of a rally in support of Nikol Pashinyan, a candidate for MP and political prisoner. The event was held by the Armenian National Congress within the agitation campaign for parliamentary elections in the majority constituency No. 10 of Yerevan.

Vitaly Khripun, a warrant officer, who took his contract service in South Ossetia and in December 2009 deserted to the territory of Georgia, is now living in Tbilisi, waiting for awarding him a refugee status. He told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he felt no regret of leaving his post and explained the reasons of his decision and described the general situation in the border.

On January 5, the Ministry for Taxation of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) began inspection the documentation of the local Resource Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

On January 14, the city of Batumi in Georgia will be the venue of the international energy summit. It is expected that Presidents of several countries will be among the participants.

On January 5, over 150 residents of the Sabirabad District of Azerbaijan held a protest action in front of the building of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in Baku against violations during municipal elections. The protesters are going to address President's administration and ask to consider their claims.

In 2010, the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijani Republic will allocate 80 million manats (about 100 million US dollars) for the measures aimed to improve the social status and accommodation of refugees and forced migrants.

Today in the morning in Makhachkala, a terrorist-suicide bomber in a car tried to ram through the gate of the battalion of the city State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (STSI, also known as GIBDD), where at that time road policemen gathered before going to their posts. However, at the last moment, at the very entrance, the blow was taken by a special fire team (SFT). Its members rammed the terrorist's car by their UAZ minivan and blew up together with the suicide bomber.

Advocates of Nazim Guliev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Ideal", demand to stop the investigation against their client. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that at a press conference today lawyers Elbrus Saryvelli and Vugar Khasaev said that the investigation "from the very beginning was illegal."

On January 4, the office of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Civil Assembly hosted a sitting of the committee in defence of the freedom of speech dedicated to the new criminal case opened against the imprisoned journalist Einullah Fatullaev.

Under assertions of the South-Ossetian party, Gennady Pliev, an employee of the state security service of South Ossetia was kidnapped at 7:00 a.m. in the district of South Ossetia named Shanghai and bordering on Georgia. The Georgian party asserts that Pliev was detained in its territory.

On January 4, structures of businessman Oleg Deripaska sold the control over 100 percent of shares of the oil company "Russneft" back to the structures of its founder - former head of the "Russneft" and a native of Ingushetia Mikhail Gutseriev. This was reported by a source close to one of the parties of the deal.

As stated by Vladimir Churov, chair of the Russian Central Electoral Commission (CEC), the election of the Mayor of Derbent was nullified because the majority of voters were listed by the polling stations, which failed to open on the voting day.

In 2010, the authorities of Abkhazia expect further recognition of independence of this breakaway republic by the countries of the Pacific basin, Latin America and Middle East. This was stated by Sergey Shamba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, who added that "a whole range of countries are ready to consider the issue."

The oppositional parties of Georgia have prepared an appeal to the Secretary General of the United Nations asking him to take the forthcoming municipal elections in this country under the aegis of this international organization. The leaders of the opposition are sure that democratic elections in Georgia are possible only with a direct participation of the United Nations.

Georgian experts and politicians believe that possible opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will affect the whole Caucasus and radically change the political picture of the region.