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As reported by Minister Aram Arutyunyan, the checks conducted by his Ministry of Nature Protection this year have revealed over 700 violations in the spheres of fauna and flora protection, protection and use of water bodies and illegal felling. As a result of the checks, the Ministry has returned 118.4 million drams back to the state budget.

Today in Moscow, Foreign Ministers of Russia and Abkhazia Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shamba have signed the intergovernmental agreement which "creates the legal basis for functioning of diplomatic representative offices of the two countries."

The decision of the Supreme Court of Dagestan to cancel the outcomes of the elections in the city of Derbent is lawful and justified. The experts who stick to this opinion say that the courts have perceived President Medvedev's signal.

The municipal elections on December 23 in Azerbaijan were accompanied by rough violations of the law and, consequently, cannot be regarded as free, democratic and fair. This is asserted in the primary statement of the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Training in Democracy (CMETD) adopted on the monitoring results of the election campaign.

In the near future, should the Armenian-Turkish border get opened, Armenia will be able to export electric power to Turkey. Armenia is interested in this export to the neighbour, where the energy deficit is high. This was stated by Armen Movsisyan, Minister for Power and Natural Resources of Armenia.

On December 18-19, the project "Peace to the Caucasus", which assumes meetings, discussions and roundtables in the republics of Northern Caucasus, visited Ingushetia.

The refugees from South Ossetia, who were temporarily accommodated in Skra village (8 km off the city of Gori), held a protest action by blocking a railway section not far from Gori. According to Georgian media, they demand restoration of electricity supply to their houses.

Russian human rights defenders Ernst Chorny and Sergey Kovalyov came to Tbilisi to meet President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. According to Mr Kovalyov, earlier they sent a letter to Mikhail Saakashvili asking him to release human rights activist Academician Vladimir Vakhaniya.

The current legislation assumes a mechanism of early relief of prisoners in case of a heavy disease, which prevents any further stay in prison. Lawyer Gayane Khachatryan told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent in her comment on the chances to get amnestied because of state of health for the Armenian political prisoner Sasun Mikaelyan.

Today, Khaibula Khaibulaev, a resident of Karata village, Akhvakh District, has sent a letter to Yuri Chaika, General Public Prosecutor of Russia, asking him to attract Labazan Derbishev, head of criminal search of the Botlikh District, who severely beat Khaibulaev on August 16, 2009.

In 2009, the number of crimes, which can be regarded as terror acts, committed in the south of Russia, went up by almost one third as compared with 2008; thus, during 11 months of this year, 786 such crimes were committed. This was stated on December 22 by Vladimir Ustinov, Plenipotentiary of Russian President for the South federal District (SFD).

In Tbilisi, Khatuna Charaeva, a resident of the Leningor District of South Ossetia, was detained with 30,000 counterfeit US dollars on her. Boris Chochiev, Plenipotentiary of President of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement, said that "the Georgian authorities have started applying a new method of creating intolerable life conditions for the population of the area."

In the evening on December 23, Azerbaijan finalized its municipal elections. They were attended by 1,462,070 voters, or 31.86 percent of the voters' list. As reported by Ramin Guseinov, head of the centre named "Elections", the outcomes are still unknown.

The Kabardino-Balkarian human rights centre was approached by Lydia Zhangurazova, a resident of Verkhniaya Zhemtala village, Cherek District, Kabardino-Balkaria, who said that her son Islam Zhangurazov, 23, went for his evening pray to the mosque on Sunday, December 20, but never reached the mosque.

In 2009, in the Rostov Region, 14 state and municipal officials have been attracted to criminal liability. On December 17, Nikolai Britvin, head of the FSB Department for the Rostov Region, told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, this was the result of implementing a complex of measures aimed to reveal, prevent and stop corruption processes in the bodies of state power and local self-management.

Vitaly Khripun, a sergeant of a Russian frontier unit, deployed in South Ossetia, explained his escape by the humiliations, to which he was subjected at his place of service.

The members of the Adyg Diaspora of Turkey, representing the public organization "Kakavsevi" (Caucasian Home), have condemned the recent attacks on leaders of the Adyg social movements in Kabardino-Balkaria.

The action, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the charitable fund "Armenian Registry of Marrow Donors" will take place on January 8, 2010, in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. This was stated on December 16 by Armen Khachatryan, Minister of Public Health.

The Russian party is ready to consider the materials of the Dubai police on the case about the murder attempt on the ex-commander of the "Vostok" battalion Sulim Yamadaev by means of own power agencies.

Today, the Baku Appeal Court, chaired by Gail Mamedov, held a preparatory session on the complaint of young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, sentenced on November 11 to 2.5 and 2 years of imprisonments for hooliganism and inflicting bodily injuries.