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Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger, has refused to stop criticizing Chechen authorities, despite repression threats against his kidnapped relatives.

The refusal to interrogate within the "Memorial"* case those who founded this organization and is working therein, as well as the witnesses from Northern Caucasus declared by the defence, indicates the court's unwillingness to impartially delve into the essence of the case, human rights defenders have commented on the outcomes of the next court session.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a Chechen blogger, had asked journalists to ask Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at his annual press conference held on December 23, about kidnappings of relatives, but this issue was not raised there.

Kidnapping of relatives of blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov and other critics of the Chechen authorities was committed against the background of the trials against the “Memorials”* NGOs, when the main attention of Russian and foreign human rights defenders is focused on those trials and somewhat distracted from Chechnya, human rights defenders note. They call the kidnapping of relatives a historically alien practice in the Caucasus.

Today, in a case on the liquidation of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial’*, the defence reminded the court that people affected by construction of the Irganai hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and migrants from Chechnya to Ingushetia received support from “Memorial”* in defending their rights in court.

Murtazali Gasanguseinov, a father of Dagestani shepherds Nabi and Gasangusein Gasanguseinov, who were killed in 2016, arrived in Moscow to attend the today’s court hearing on a lawsuit to liquidate the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*. According to Murtazali Gasanguseinov, the “stigma of terrorists” was removed from his killed sons thanks to the HRC “Memorial”*.

According to the Spiritual Administration of Chechnya, the opening in Turkey of a park named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of Ichkeria, is at odds with the Muslim traditions that condemn terrorism.

In the evening on December 22, several dozen nightclub employees held a protest action in Tbilisi, during which they demanded not to extend the restrictions imposed due to coronavirus. They stressed that should the authorities fail to meet their demands, they will be forced to hold larger-scale protests, the "Rustavi-2" TV Company has reported on its website today.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"* has repeatedly helped Ingush activists and other residents of Russia and was often the only organization that claimed violations of their rights, the activists, Bagautdin Myakiev and Isropil Nalgiev, have pointed out in their video messages. They called on the court to reject the lawsuit of the prosecutor's office demanding to liquidate the HRC "Memorial"*.

Several dozen people from Georgian regions have joined the hunger strike, held in Tbilisi by the "United National Movement" (UNM) Party with a demand to release Mikheil (Mikhail) Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia.

Minkail Malizaev, a blogger criticizing Chechen authorities, has announced the kidnapping of his paternal and maternal relatives in Chechnya. Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who had also reported about kidnapping of his relatives, has posted a message that a similar fate had befallen relatives of Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of the "Vayfond" Association.

The Russian-Turkish relations are full of contradictions, but neither the opening of the Djokhar Dudaev Park nor Ramzan Kadyrov's indignation over the fact can aggravate them, the political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The situation with the observance of the rights of pupils of the boarding school for orphans in the town of Ninotsminda has improved significantly after a social workers' round-the-clock watch was organized there, Nino Lomdjariya, the Georgia's Ombudsperson, has informed.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Ali Yakhyaev, a native of Chechnya, to five years in a high security colony, having found him guilty of trying to go to Syria in order to join a terrorist organization there.

Polad Aslanov, an Azerbaijani journalist in prison, complained about the absence of proper conditions for providing him with quality medical care.

In Abkhazia, it is periodically reported about torture of suspects, but guilty persons were never punished in any of those cases. Most cases of torture are hushed up, because, according to the Abkhazian mentality, “it’s a shame to be a victim.”

On the eve of the hearing of the Moscow City Court on the lawsuit to liquidate the human rights organization, a petition demanding not to allow the liquidation of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* and the International Historical, Educational, Charity and Human Rights Society “Memorial”* (International Memorial) gained 128,625 signatures.

Relatives on the sides of the father and the mother of opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, living in Chechnya, have been kidnapped tonight. The blogger associates the kidnapping to his brother’s criticism of Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen parliament.

Journalist Eva Merkachyova and human rights defender Anna Karetnikova were excluded from the Public Council under the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN). While being members of the Council, they defended the rights of prisoners, and at a meeting of the Human Rights Council with Vladimir Putin, Eva Merkachyova highlighted the problem of torture of natives of the Caucasus.

The film "Unclenching the Fists", filmed in North Ossetia by a graduate of the Nalchik workshop, headed by Alexander Sokurov, has failed to get into the short list of candidates for the "Oscar" Award.