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Journalist Idris Yusupov* held a solo picket in Makhachkala in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Journalist Magomed Magomedov held at the same place a picket in support of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, and his protest action caused a lively reaction from passers-by.

In Vienna, about 50 activists held a rally with the demand to conduct an investigation into the death of a native of Chechnya in an Austrian prison. The rally participants called on for stopping the deportation of natives of Chechnya to countries where torture and extrajudicial killings await them.

A military court sentenced a contract soldier from Kuban to three years of imprisonment in a penal colony, finding him guilty of evading military service.

The defence convinced a court in Malgobek to release from custody Leyla Gatagazheva, a native of Ingushetia, accused of having connections in Syria with militants of the “Islamic State” (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”).

Relatives of people suspected of extremism are responsible for their actions. That has been announced by Ramzan Kadyrov. The authorities of Chechnya will get rid of their critics wherever they are, the Chechen leader notes.

Forced migrants from Palestine who arrived in Nalchik have faced a lack of job offers and a shortage of cash. The refugees express their hopes that after the New Year holidays, the authorities will resolve the issue of educating children in local schools.

In Rostov-on-Don, the Southern District Military Court refused to recover four million roubles in compensation from the Russian Ministry of Defence in favour of a female relative of a military man who was shot dead by his colleague from a submachine gun in the special military operation zone in Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya Aishat Kadyrova, a daughter of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, sent a complaint to the Chechen Ministry for Public Health about violation of medical ethics.

Two young men apologized for dancing at a party, admitting that their dance did not correspond to the mentality of people in Dagestan.

A court refused to award compensation to Nuradil Bagautdinov, a person with disability from Dagestan, for being mobilized and sent to the special military operation zone in Ukraine without a medical examination.

The police considered the death of Denis Aliev, a resident of the Chechen village of Mairtup, a suicide. However, the victim’s body had signs of torture, and fellow villagers reported his disappearance before his death, the “Memorial” Centre for Defence of Human Rights stated.

Viktor Pivovarov, a priest from Slavyansk-on-Kuban, accused of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, associates criminal proceedings against him with his Christmas message to believers.

In Dagestan and Ingushetia, officials try to hide data on “honour killings” by removing the information about such cases from court’s official websites. In Chechnya, citing a woman’s immoral behaviour as a motive for murder helps to obtain a more lenient punishment, human rights defender Saida Sirazhudinova has noted.

In her report dedicated to the problem of domestic violence human rights defender Saida Sirazhudinova notes that the problem of killings of women by their relatives remains acute in Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya. The problem of bride kidnapping also remains relevant in the republics.

The fame of World and European Boxing Champion Umar Salamov could be one of the reasons for his release by the Chechen law enforcement bodies, human rights defenders note. They emphasize that when relatives of the people kidnapped by law enforcers refuse to communicate with human rights defenders and journalists, they hope for leniency from the law enforcement bodies towards their family members.

Public events on the anniversary of the deportation of the Kalmyk people are predominantly formal in their nature and do not attract residents of the republic, although the memory of their repressed relatives is extremely important for them, public figures note.

In Pyatigorsk, the Garrison Military Court recognized as legal the actions of state border guards at an airport in Mineralnye Vody, who forced Olga Begretova, an activist from Nalchik, to have her fingerprints and biological material taken. The police refusal to investigate the incident was also found legal.

The “Memorial” Centre for Defence of Human Rights has informed the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia about the ongoing persecution of residents of Dagestan on religious grounds under the lists of the police preventive registration.

In her complaint to Kazbek Kokov, the leader of Kabardino-Balkaria, a spouse of mobilized Murat Tutov has claimed that their family with many children found itself in a difficult situation due to lack of payments, and the father of the family was diagnosed with serious illnesses after his participation in the special military operation and needs medical treatment.

Prayer services in memory of victims of the deportation were held throughout Kalmykia. In Elista, residents of the republic, among whom were survivors of the deportation, gathered for a rally.