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The police drew a protocol against Krasnodar lawyer Mikhail Benyash on the organization of an unsanctioned action. The lawyer himself treated the above as a law enforcers' attempt to deprive local Alexei Navalny's supporters of legal aid, since the lawyer promised to defend them.

One of the men who participated in the beating of Ruslan Totrov is a "close associate" of South-Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov, the journalist reports today.

In the regions of the Southern Federal District (SFD) and the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), supporters of oppositionist Alexei Navalny decided to hold marches and pickets in his support despite the fact that the law enforcement bodies warned the activists about responsibility for unsanctioned protests.

47-year-old combat engineer Azer Sultanov was injured while demining a place at the construction site of a railway in the Djebrail District, the "Sputnik Azerbaijan" reports today. This is the fifth case of a mine explosion in January in the territories that came under the control of Azerbaijan as a result of the autumn escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the "Sputnik Azerbaijan" reports.

Evgeny Kochegin, the head of Navalny's Volgograd office, and activist Maria Khudoyarova were taken to the police station, Sergey Kunitsky, an advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Adam Elzhurkaev, a theologian, has scolded an 80-year-old woman from the village of Assinovskaya for her many years of witchcraft, as follows from the report of the Chechen TV channel. Some Instagram users have criticized government officials for publicly reprimanding the elderly woman.

The opposition in Armenia is not strong enough to force Nikol Pashinyan to resign, Armenian political analysts have stated.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which found Russia involved in human rights violations in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, will help in speeding up the consideration of the armed conflict at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and will make it possible to achieve a decision at the UN International Court of Justice on the return of the lost territories, the Georgian human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

Azerbaijani military observers have called the official statistics of losses in the battles for Karabakh as close to reality.

While watching his ancestral village of Katar-Yurt, Chechen law enforcers found Aslan Byutukaev's secret hiding place, says the publication by the "Kommersant". Law enforcement sources said that the militants had tried to break out of the encirclement.

Ruslan Totrov, a journalist and a blogger, said he was beaten up by two men who expressed their anger about his critical publications about the President of South Ossetia. The local authorities treat the incident as a provocation.

After the arrest of oppositionist Alexei Navalny, activists of Dagestan were warned about the inadmissibility of any unsanctioned protests. The authorities of Dagestan try to prevent protest actions in support of Alexei Navalny, even though there are few of his supporters in the region, experts note.

According to the results of the expert examinations, the bodies of 2858 soldiers and officers killed during the combat actions in Nagorno-Karabakh have been identified, the Military Prosecutor of Azerbaijan reports.

In its today's judgment in the case of Georgia v. Russia (II), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recognized that Russia was involved in the violation of human rights in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but was not responsible for the hostilities in August 2008.

Influential prisoners under the control of prison administrations try to prevent Ombudsperson's officers from inspecting prisons and other prisoners – from filing complaints, Georgia's Ombudsperson Nino Lomjaria claims. She has urged the Georgian government and parliament to intervene in the situation.

Niyameddin Akhmedov, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), arrested in a case on financing of terrorism, has been charged with public appeals against the state and illicit trafficking in banned items. Niyameddin Akhmedov pleads not guilty, the PFPA reports.

Over the past five months, the number of political prisoners has decreased by 46, and now makes 146 persons, the Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" (UFFPPA) has stated. At the same time, human rights defenders treat the fact of the presence of political prisoners in the country – a member of the Council of Europe as unacceptable, and call on the authorities to release all the political prisoners.

Peacemakers have escorted a group of 187 refugees from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, making the total number of returnees 50,303 persons, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

Asya Gazhaeva from Grozny is hiding from her husband with her four children, unsuccessfully seeking a divorce. It's problematic to dissolve a marriage in Chechnya, since Ramzan Kadyrov declared that there are "no divorces" in the republic, Ms Gazhaeva said in her interview with the "Glasnaya" (Public) Social Project, which aims to overcome gender stereotypes.

After the liquidation of a militant grouping headed by Aslan Byutukaev in Katar-Yurt it is too early to declare the end of armed conflicts in Chechnya, as a young generation is growing up, dissatisfied with authorities' policies, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.