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Political figures and experts of Dagestan diverge in their opinions on establishment of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and appointment of Alexander Khloponin to the post of President's plenipotentiary in the new district. Recent statements of Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin as to development prospects of the region are also perceived differently.

The Yasamal District Court of Azerbaijan has postponed the litigation earlier appointed for January 25 on the suit of Ramil Usubov, Interior Minister, lodged under procedure of a special charge against Eyub Kerimov, editor-in-chief of the "Femida-007" newspaper.

Within the protest action against the verdict passed on January 19 in Armenia to Nikol Pashinyan, the GALA TV Company is holding a cycle of live open TV debates.

The National Council on Appraisal Activities (NCAA) has drafted Methodical Guidelines on appraising the property alienated for Olympic needs. The earlier different interpretations of appraisal rules and norms as regards land plots and dwelling houses in Sochi have been harmonised.

President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity has held a meeting with bosses of local power agencies. The main topic was service discipline in subdivisions and counteraction to illegal drugs circulation.

The state prosecution has refused to appeal against the verdict passed by the Novgorod Regional Court on the case of the first explosion of the "Neva-Express" train in 2007. In the course of investigation of this crime, the bribe case was returned to the first instance court.

In the course of the visit of the members of the Public Observation Commission (POC) of Novorossisk to the Krasnodar-based IVS (temporary isolation facility), ex-Major of Militia Alexei Dymovskiy said that he felt no pressure. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee of Human Rights and Alexei Dymovskiy's official representative.

The Federal Supervising Service in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications ("Roskomnadzor") has warned the editorial board of the magazine "Kommersant-Vlast" on inadmissibility of extremist activity. The reason was the interview with Issa Kodzoev, a writer from Ingushetia. The workers of the magazine partially agree with the Service.

As stated by Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Committee "Civil Assistance", the criminal investigation on Natalia Estemirova's murder faces problems, although inspectors are still going to round it up. Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", believes that involvement of power agents in her murder should be considered as one of the main versions in searching the criminals.

The Council of Europe does a lot to urge Azerbaijan to execute its liabilities before this organization. This was stated on January 25 in Strasbourg by Luis Maria de Puch, head of the PACE Assembly before the opening of the winter session. It was his last press conference as the head of the PACE in connection with the expiry of his two years in office.

Tomorrow, on January 26, the cassation complaint, lodged by the convicts for a bribe in the case of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in 2007, where they declare their innocence, will be considered.

The women's charitable hospital will soon again receive patients. Its head Aishat Magomedova has noted that after deployment of furniture and equipment the hospital will start its work at a new address.

On January 23, speaking to the protest rally held by communists in Volgograd, Alevtina Aparina, Deputy of the State Duma and leader of the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) branch in Volgograd Region, opposed political persecutions of dissidents in the country.

Supporters of Major Alexei Dymovskiy, who was detained on January 22 and brought to temporary isolation facility (known also as "IVS") in Krasnodar, have gathered today in his support.

The local MIA reports that a young man suspected of kidnapping a minor back in 1999 has been detained.

The trolleybus drivers of the capital of Abkhazia are on strike for two days demanding increase of salary, which now makes about 2000 Russian roubles per month.

Today, at about 3 p.m., at the metro station "Culture Park-Ring" in Moscow, unidentified persons made an attempt on the life of Evgeniy Arkhipov, chairman of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights. Mr Arkhipov is known for presenting the interests of Matveevka, a village near Moscow, which last autumn was in the centre of scandal in connection with preparations for 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

The criminal process on the attack on law enforcement bodies of Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), committed on October 13, 2005, is now at the stage of interrogating witnesses. One of them - Kazbek Taashev, an employee of the road sentry service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the KBR, - said, in answer to an advocate's question on how they differentiated Wahhabites from traditional Moslems, that the difference was in the formers' "shaving off moustaches and wearing beards, shaped unusually for our people."

Today, at a meeting in Pyatigorsk on development of the regions of the newly formed North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), Russian Premier Vladimir Putin defined priorities for the District and instructed a number of Ministries of the Russian Federation, the President's plenipotentiary in the NCFD Alexander Khloponin and regional authorities.

A website has appeared in the Internet calling to nominate the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov for the President of Russia at the 2012 election. The President of Chechnya labelled it an ideological diversion.