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One Armenian military was killed and another was wounded as a result of a shootout at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia reports today.

The Armenian side accumulated additional forces near the state border and shelled the positions of Azerbaijani troops in the Kelbadjar District, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reported. Its Armenian counterpart claims to have repulsed an attack of Azerbaijani soldiers.

Five militaries, handed over to Armenia after the armed clashes at the border with Azerbaijan, were accused of violating the rules of combat duty. Human rights defender Arthur Sakunts says it is unacceptable to open criminal proceedings against Armenian soldiers captured by Azerbaijan.

A statement of Vladimir Putin on the need to consider the case of the “Memorial”* without bias came amid the accusations against human rights defenders of protecting banned organizations and the inclusion of Nazi criminals in the list of victims of political repression. The inclusion of a person on the list of political prisoners does not mean sharing his or her views, and the erroneous classification of Nazi criminals as victims of repression occurred due to the closed nature of the archives of the special services, human rights defenders argue.

Giorgi Lortkipanidze, a former Deputy Interior Minister, had developed for Mikhail Saakashvili a plan for crossing the Georgian border and provided him with his car, in which the politician arrived at the Black Sea port, the Georgia's General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) has suggested.

Anastasia Kashkina, a journalist from the "Sota" online edition, had to emigrate to Georgia due to threats and surveillance after her investigative publication about a robbery and attempted murder this February of an entrepreneur and his friend in Dagestan.

Vladimir Putin said that he had requested additional information on the liquidation case of the "Memorial"*, and expressed hope for the objectivity of the trial, but has reproached the human rights organization for "demonstrative violations."

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), law enforcers have detained Insa Lander, a blogger. According to her acquaintances, the court has placed the girl under house arrest on suspicion of aiding terrorist activities.

The Moscow City Court (MCC) has rejected the motion of the defence of Idrak Mirzalizade, which had challenged the ban on his entry to Russia.

The decoration of Akhmed Dudaev, a Chechen minister, with a medal for the protection of human rights (advocacy), and awarding Chingiz Akhmadov, the head of the "Grozny" ChGTRK (the Chechen State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company), for the development of civil society are ridiculous, Instagram users have noted.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia has informed that its two military servicemen were wounded as a result of shelling conducted by Azerbaijani units.

Azerbaijani units shelled the combat positions of Armenia in the Gegarkunik direction, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia reported. Its Azerbaijani counterpart reported about a shelling attack on the Azerbaijani positions in the Kelbadjar District.

On December 7-8, the 55th round of the International Geneva Discussions on Security and Stability in the Transcaucasus was held in Geneva, which gathered representatives of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Georgia, Russia, and the United States took part under the co-chairmanship of the UN, EU, and OSCE.

In the Shusha District, two young workers involved in restoration work were killed in a mine explosion, the Azerbaijani police reported.

Turkish doctors diagnosed Salekh Rustamov with the brain cell regression, but the prisoner refused to end his hunger strike, which he has been continuing for 34 days already, an advocate of the prisoner reported. The Azerbaijani authorities have ignored numerous requests to release Salekh Rustamov, human rights defender Rufat Safarov notes.

Students of higher and secondary educational institutions are involved as volunteers in checking QR codes of visitors to large shopping centres in Makhachkala, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media of Dagestan announces.

Asif Aliev, an Azerbaijani soldier was killed on the border of the Kelbadjar District with Armenia in a shootout with Armenian militaries, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed. The Armenian MoD has accused Azeri militaries of the shootout on the border.

The development of economic ties with countries of Southern Caucasus will allow the USA to restore is lost political influence in the region, the participants in the discussion organized by the "Foreign Policy" magazine in Tbilisi have stated.

On December 8, about two thousand supporters of the oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) Party held a protest action near the residence of Salome Zurabishvili, the President of Georgia, demanding to set Mikheil (Mikhail) Saakashvili free. Failing to achieve a meeting with her, they threatened to switchover to tougher protest forms.

By demanding from Armenia to open the Zangezur Corridor, Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliev, has secured the support of the international community; therefore, his threats to solve the problem by force are quite real, the Azeri analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe. Baku is using the corridor issue as a lever of pressure on Armenia, and the country is vulnerable to it, political analysts in Yerevan have noted.