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The Georgian observers, whose mass arrival in Ukraine was one of major topics on the eve of the first round of presidential election held there on January 17, have returned to Georgia.

As reported by law enforcement bodies of Ingushetia, Magomed Gorchkhanov, a member of the criminal grouping, engaged in kidnapping businessmen with the aim of getting ransom, was detained.

Some US congressmen have demanded from the administration of President Barack Obama not to take part in the work of the working group "Civil Society", set up last year under the top-level Russian-American Commission until the Kremlin replaces its Russian coordinator - first deputy of the administration of Russian President Vladislav Surkov.

The authorities of Moscow have again warned about inadmissibility of the march in memory of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova assassinated a year ago.

The public organization "Khasse" sees the solution of the land problem in Kabardino-Balkaria in enforcement of the Federal Law No. 131 "On General Principles of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation". This was stated on January 16 by the leaders of the organizations "Khasse" Ibragim Yaganov and "Circassian Congress" Ruslan Keshev at a press conference in Nalchik.

Nikol Pashinyan, an activist of opposition and editor-in-chief of the newspaper named "Aikakan Zhamanak" (Armenian Time) was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. This decision of the general jurisdiction court of Yerevan communities Centre-Nork Marash was passed today.

So far, the accident at the gas main in Ingushetia was not recognized to be a terror act; but if it will be, the result may be in growth of mistrust to the authorities, since the population is already criticizing the republic's leadership. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about by Kaloy Akhilgov, press secretary of the Ingush President; while in the opinion of Vakha Chapanov, head of the Ingush news agency "Maximum", the authorities have failed to properly inform the population about the accident.

The MIA of Chechnya has disseminated the information that on January 16, in the high-mountainous Vedeno District, as a result of a special operation, a man of 32 was detained, who on the eve returned from Austria, where until recently he lived as a refugee. The detainee is accused of taking part in separatists' armed formations in 2001. Local human rights activists assert that the actions of power agents are illegal.

As reported by President Yunus-Bek Evkurov at a meeting in the Ingush Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), in 2009 in Ingushetia 16 militants surrendered and returned to peaceful life.

President of Adygea Aslan Tkhakushinov believes that his republic has good potentials for attracting investors. According to his story, Adygea was recognized by experts to be the quietest region of Northern Caucasus and went up by 27 positions in the rating of investment attractiveness.

As announced by Grigol Katamadze, Georgia's ambassador to Ukraine, at a press conference in Kiev, the conflict in the context of the refusal of the Ukrainian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to register election observers from Georgia will not grow into a diplomatic scandal.

In Baku, the religious community of mosque "Fatmei Zakhra", located in the settlement of Eni Gyuneshli, Surakhan District, of the capital of Azerbaijan, is going to appeal against the decisions of lower judicial instances about demolition of the temple at the Supreme Court.

Today, at the meeting with top managers of the Russian Federation Audit Chamber, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev demanded to be very tough in controlling the expenditures on building the Olympic objects in Sochi.

The persons who tried to derail the "Neva-Express" train in August 2007 had to do with at least two more explosions in Russia. These are the results of the examination held within the investigation of the criminal case about the terror act and presented in the verdict of the Novgorod Regional Court passed of the train explosion case.

Russian special agencies are engaged in searching the four relatives of the widow of the assassinated Ingush oppositionist Maksharip Aushev, who disappeared in the end of last December in St Petersburg. However, so far, nothing is known about their whereabouts, a source in power agencies said.

As reported by Sergey Kucheruk, head of the GUVD (Interior Department) of the Krasnodar Territory, the second criminal case was opened against former Militia Major from Novorossisk Alexei Dymovskiy; this time, as he said, - under Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - forgery. Mr Kucheruk gave no details, but promised that more criminal cases will follow.

Activists of civil society made a statement calling the Russian authorities to stop the practice of persecuting the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses and other "non-title" religious communities in Russia and protect believers against illegal oppressions.

The Belarusian Company "Triple" has given up its plans of building a biathlon complex in Sochi for Olympiad-2014. As reported by the "Gazprom" and "Sochi-2014" Organizing Committee, the reason of demarche was Russia's refusal to grant export oil discounts to Belarus.

Today in Vladikavkaz, members of the initiative group "Electrozink. What do we breathe in?" have held another picket with a demand to decommission the "Electrozink" metallurgy factory.

Vakhtang Tsugba, Military Commissar (MC) of Abkhazia, rejects statements about forced recruitment of young Georgian nationals to the Abkhazian army. This was stated by Mr Tsugba in the context of the information disseminated by Georgian sources that an Abkhazian soldier Lekso Bzhaniya asked for political asylum in Georgia complaining of his violent recruitment.