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Today, Kheda Saratova, head of the Information-Analytical Agency "Objective", has left the United Mobile Group (UMG) of human rights activists, engaged in tracing the situation in the Chechen Republic and investigating the crimes against local residents. Kheda's statement about quitting the UMG was a complete surprise for some of her colleagues.

On February 8, upon expiry of imprisonment, Sardar Alibeili, editor-in-chief of the "Nota" newspaper, was set free. He served his term in minimum security colony No. 14. Mr Alibeili has stated that he will continue his journalistic activities and writing about the problems "of public concern."

Valery Gaevskiy, Governor of the Stavropol Territory, has introduced the post of the Ombudsperson in charge of children's rights. This was reported by the press service of the Governor. Svetlana Adamenko, earlier deputy minister of education of the Territory, was appointed to the post.

In Chechnya, the law enforcer, who shot dead his two colleagues in summer of 2009, when he took them for militants, will face justice. He is under threat of a criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to seven years.

On February 9, the Kirov District Court of Astrakhan authorized arrest of 7 out of 19 servicemen of the local battalion of the Road-Post Service (RPS), suspected of regular extorting bribes from motorists. Now, 11 of them are in custody (four inspectors were taken to the SIZO (pre-trial facility) on February 8 and 7).

Elmin Badalov, editor of the "Polygon" information agency, was dismissed from his 4th year of the Petro-Mechanical Department of the Azerbaijani State Oil Academy (ASOA). He believes that he was sacked for political reasons. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that Badalov himself told about it on February 8 at a press conference held at the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS).

A special working group was formed in the office of the Armenian Ombudsman with the aim to deal with the case of the well-known journalist Nikol Pashinyan, an activist of the opposition, who was convicted to seven years of imprisonment. Ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan promised to personally deal with the case.

Today, Deputies of the National Assembly of Dagestan have voted for vesting Magomedsalam Magomedov with the powers of the President of the republic. In his programme speech the new head of Dagestan promised to consolidate the society and not to persecute his opponents.

The incident that happened on February 7 and related with detention of lawyers of United Mobile Group (UMG) - members the created in the end of the last year Public Commission on Chechnya, is convincingly demonstrating that the principles of legality, presumption of innocence and personal immunity are nothing for practical work of some bosses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Chechen Republic. This is the opinion of I. A. Kalyapin, head of the headquarters of the UMG.

The criminal case on slandering President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov opened against Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was to be stopped soon because of absence of crime elements. This was stated by Mr Orlov himself in his comments on the Chechen leader's recall of his claims against human rights activists and journalists.

In 2009, Karachai-Circassia registered 4749 crimes, that is, by 11.4 percent less, than in 2008 (5361 registered crimes). This was stated by Senior Adviser of Justice Ruslan Hadjimusov, first deputy head of the ICPO at the Prosecutor's Office of Karachai-Circassia in his 2009 report to the Collegium of the Investigatory Department (ID) for Karachai-Circassia of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation on the measures aimed to increase the efficiency of investigatory bodies.

The head of the administration of one of the villages of the foothill Kurchaloy District of Chechnya is accused of illegal reception by his relative of a large sum of money for building a house.

Today at midday, the city of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, settlements of the Apsheron Peninsula, and adjacent cities of Khyrdalan and Sumgait, lost their electricity supplies. Traffic in Baku metro and railways was stopped. All state bodies, including the President's administration, got de-powered.

The international human rights organizations Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders and Front Line have demanded from the Russian authorities to hold inquiry into the fact of detention of three human rights activist in Chechnya and bring those guilty to responsibility.

Militia General-Major Gregory Kulik, Head of the UVD (Interior Department) of the Astrakhan Region, has ordered to dismiss from office Militia Captain Kirsanov, a squadron commander of the Special Battalion (SB) of the Road Patrol Service (RPS)-1, his deputy Militia Captain Milov and Militia Lieutenant Colonel Barninkov, commander of the SB of the RPS-1. The order was caused by detention of the employees of Squadron 1 of the SB of the RPS-1 of the Astrakhan Regional STSI (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, know in Russia as "GIBDD"), suspected of bribery.

The Frontier Department (FD) of the Russian FSB in South Ossetia has announced the reasons, which forced warrant officer Khripun to desert on December 21 from his post of frontier control. According to Colonel Dmitri Chikirov, deputy head of the above Department, Khripun's flight across the border was a provocation of Georgian special services.

In February, Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner of the Council of Europe on Human Rights, will visit South Ossetia. One of the main topics will be debates on release of the Ossetians, considered as missing or detained by the Georgian party.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has addressed members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) with an appeal to surrender in exchange for lenient administrative and criminal punishments.

Threats are arriving to mobile phones of the applicants for a rally in demand of a fair trial of Militia Major Alexei Dymovskiy. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee of Human Rights (NCHR) and Dymovskiy's official representative.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has recalled, after his mother's appeal, his suits against Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", Liudmila Alekseeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and a group of Moscow journalists. Alvi Karimov, Kadyrov's press secretary, denies that the mother asked to stop prosecution of human rights activists under Kadyrov's request.