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Today, Chechen residents have held a second meeting in Grosny against the grant of parole to former colonel Yuri Budanov convicted for murdering Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva.

In Armenia, Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan has interrupted a session of the process of seven oppositionists accused of a putsch attempt, having motivated his decision by disrespect for the court allegedly exhibited by the defendants. The following session was appointed on January 9.

On December 26, in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, four suspected participants of illegal armed formations were detained.

The administration of the capital of Chechnya has launched an active campaign aimed to increase collections for municipal services. In the opinion of Grozny officials, it is the time "to pay in full for the benefits of civilization." Apartment rental agreements are cancelled with those who fail to pay for their flats.

The government of the Astrakhan Region and the LLC "FERSA-Cherkessk", an affiliate of the Spanish Company "Fersa Energias Renovables", have signed a contract on construction of windmills in the Astrakhan Region.

According to the Republic's Department for Statistics, the number of unemployed persons in North Ossetia has already exceeded 20,000, as Rimma Gutieva, chair of the Republic's trade union organization, has reported.

On the eve of the New Year, the most popular resorts of Karachaevo-Cherkesia - Dombai and Arkhyz - remain practically without tourists. Hotels drop rates, and "one-day tours" are gaining popularity. Experts of the tourist business say that it is the effect of the financial crisis.

Sarkis Atspanyan, a citizen of France and a veteran of the Karabakh is holding his hunger strike in detention for the 27th day already. In the morning on December 26, he refused to drink water.

New amendments to the Constitution of Georgia will simplify the procedure of government's dismissal by the parliament, while the president will not be able to dissolve the parliament. This was declared on December 26 by President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, who gave comments on his legislative initiative, which will be discussed by the parliament on December 29.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has found out that hundreds of millions roubles allocated from the federal budget are disappearing in his Republic. He told about it at his meeting held in Magas on December 24 with Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), and Valery Borschov, a member of the MHG and of the Bureau of the "Yabloko" Party.

The Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is making, upon permission of the authorities, regular emissions of small dozes of radioactive substances into the environment. Ecologists assert that this is harmful for local residents and ecology. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the NGO named "Ekozaschita!" (Ecology Protection).

The referendum on amendments and additions to the Constitution of Azerbaijan will take place on March 18, 2009. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that this decision was passed today by the country's parliament.

In the Rostov Region, all the attempts to bring Valery Dyakonov, one of the organizers of the picket and hunger strike of miners-pensioners and deputy of the city duma of Zverevo, to administrative responsibility have ended in a failure. The court found no violations of the law in Mr Dyakonov's actions.

On December 28, in Krasnodar, the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus will hold a protest action "In Defence of Utrish Unique Nature Complexes".

The fourth round of choosing jurymen held at the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria for the trial on the events on October 13, 2005, brought only one juryman. Meanwhile, the term of appointment of the earlier selected jurymen expires already on January 1.

A mass protest action is now held in the capital of Chechnya in the context of early relief from the colony of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, guilty of murdering Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva, 17, in March 2000.

The attack on December 22 in the capital Karachaevo-Circassia on journalist Zhanna Akbasheva was committed when she was performing her editorial task. She thinks that she was beaten for her publications criticizing the Republic's authorities.

Kerim Malkarov, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, accused of a murder, has been kept at the Nalchik investigatory isolation facility for almost seven months already. On December 22, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld the decision of the Nalchik City Court on extending his custody.

Residents of the Imereti Valley - the territory of the would-be Olympic Village in Sochi - have managed to prevent the declared demolishment of their houses, delay the alienation of their land plots and insist on creations of exchange stock of land plots and construction of new houses as a precondition of resettling.

On December 24, the City Court of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Region) satisfied the petition of former Colonel Yuri Budanov for conditional early relief (CER). If there is no appeal against, Budanov will be released on January 11.