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Hieromonk Phillip (Ryabykh), deputy head of the Department of Foreign Church Relations, believes that the reaction to his words, which caused misunderstanding in Azerbaijan about three temples of the Moscow Patriarchy working in Armenia, including one in Nagorno-Karabakh, is obviously "exaggerated".

On Friday, January 15, the Prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow allowed human rights activists to hold two pickets on January 19, the first anniversary of murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Members of Chechen NGOs report violations of citizens' rights and facts of extortion by employees of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (known in Russia as "GIBDD"). They note that the problem is especially topical at the road police posts located in the administrative borders with Ossetia and Dagestan.

As reported by Elkhan Polukhov, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan, the embassy of Azerbaijan to Russia has sent a note of protest to Russia's MFA in the context of the statement made by the vice-speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky about possible recognition by Moscow of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The street named in honour of Dzhokhar Dudaev in Riga will be renamed in 2010, said Nil Ushakov, Mayor of the Latvian capital. In his opinion, the street should bear a neutral name.

The Dutch Internet edition named "De Dagelijksestandaard" has dismissed one of its journalists for denying the fact of the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey and for his qualification of 1915 events as deportation.

A suit to be lodged to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the context of a breach of the Constitution of the Russian Federation as regards the freedom of worship. The pretext was the oppression of Jehovah's Witnesses by law enforcement bodies of the South federal District (SFD). This was stated by Gregory Martynov, press secretary of the administrative centre of this religious organization.

On Thursday, January 14, the embassies of the USA and Norway in Baku made a joint statement in the context of the incident with their employees on January 12 in the village of Bananyar, Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan.

On January 14, the Coalition in Support of Civil Society in Azerbaijan held debates in the office of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) on the problems of NGOs. The debate points were in the problems of NGO registration and the latest changes in the legislation, enabling to restrain the activity of the civil society. According to Intigam Aliev, chairman of the Society of Legal Education, the civil society of Azerbaijan, actually deprived of any international support, should rely on its own forces.

Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990 are among most convincing arguments of impossibility for Nagorno-Karabakh to be a part of Azerbaijan. This is stated in the comment of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh on the 20th anniversary of these events, which deserve, in the opinion of Irina Grigoryan, head of the Stepanakert Resource Centre, their official estimation. Azerbaijanis believe that Armenian pogroms in Baku were provoked by Soviet special agencies.

Today, the centre of Makhachkala is again blocked by KamAZ trucks; traffic is absolutely blocked in the vicinity of the central square, which houses the buildings of the President's Administration and the Government of Dagestan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB and the Supreme Court of the republic.

Residents of Ingushetia Salambek Dzakhkiev and Maksharip Khidriev, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in 2007, have been acquitted under the article of "terrorism". The court found them guilty of illegal circulation of explosives.

Imam Yaraliev, a candidate to the post of Mayor of Derbent, former public prosecutor of Dagestan and currently the head of the Suleiman-Stalskiy District, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the letter with his signature disseminated by mass media and addressed to President Dmitri Medvedev, asking to support Saigidgusen Magomedov, head of the Department of the Federal Exchequer for Dagestan, to the post of the President of Dagestan was a provocation.

Election of a new Ombudsman should take place soon in Ingushetia, but the date was not appointed. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Shamsudin Mogushkov, chair of the committee for legislation, law, order and security.

Today in Tskhinvali, hundreds rallied in the Theatre Square, where the government of South Ossetia organized a supporting event of the detainees illegally kept in the territory of Georgia. Detainees' parents, local MPs, members of the Public Chamber of South Ossetia, poets and journalists spoke addressing the world community trying to urge Georgian authorities to stop capturing citizens of South Ossetia.

Today, the press service of the Mayor and Government of Russian capital has reported that the city authorities are ready to sanction a demonstration in memory of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova assassinated a year ago, if the lodge an application according to the law.

Today in Dagestan, the kindergarten of the city of Kaspiisk, where children's mass poisoning happened yesterday, was closed for quarantine. The prosecutor's office has started investigating the circumstances of what happened.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has stated that "never in his life" will he take responsibility for the whole Caucasus, and he will refuse if offered.

Lekso Bzhaniya, 18, a soldier of the Abkhazian armed forces, left his military unit without permit and addressed for refuge to the government of Georgia. The young man said that he had been forced into the Abkhazian army and expressed his readiness to serve in Georgia.

Today, Ziyavdin Dapaev, a resident of Makhachkala and a follower of Turkish religious scholar Said Nursi, whose writings under the general title "Risale-i-Nur" (Letters of Light) were judicially banned in Russia in 2007, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he was summoned for interrogation to the FSB Department for Dagestan.