Regional
- Two Georgian citizens convicted of illegally crossing into South Ossetia have been handed over to Georgia. They were detained in September 2024 near the village of Gromi (Grom) in the Tskhinvali (Tskhinval) district. In January 2025, a court in Tskhinvali found them guilty and sentenced them to a prison sentence.
Armenia
- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that if they fail to convince the opposition to amend the constitution, they may call for early parliamentary elections to get a two-thirds majority.
- The High Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs, Zareh Sinanyan, has proposed new residency rules, which would make it harder for diaspora Armenians to obtain citizenship. He said that diaspora Armenians should move to Armenia, pay taxes there, raise their children there, and defend its borders.
- The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Secretary General, Taalatbek Masadikov, said the member states may decide on Armenia’s membership at the next council session in Moscow on 11 November.
- The US has donated approximately $1.4 million worth of vehicles and specialised equipment to Armenia’s Border Guard. They say it is to strengthen border management capabilities and support regional connectivity, including the Trump Route (TRIPP).
- The EU will allocate €1.5 million ($1.6 million) for the restoration of the Lake Sevan ecosystem.
Azerbaijan
- Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Azerbaijan on Friday. Jaishankar is holding one-on-one meetings with President Ilham Aliyev as well as his Indian counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.
- Javid Aghamaliyev, Chairman of the Nakhchivan Agroservice, was detained on Thursday on suspicion of embezzling state funds.
- A group of prisoners have appealed to the embassies of foreign states requesting asylum for their family members, according to independent outlet Medyan TV. They claim that their children are facing pressure in schools due to the hijab ban.
- Azerbaijan has again criticised Turkish media for spreading what it calls ‘disinformation’ about the country’s ban on hijabs in schools. Azerbaijan’s Media and Broadcasting council said that Turkish claims had led to mass arrests and the exodus of Azerbaijanis are untrue and instead designed to ‘manipulate public opinion and misrepresent Azerbaijan’.
Georgia
- The Public Defender’s Office has abolished three departments as part of a reorganisation: Gender, Human Rights Education, and Strategic Litigation. Seven employees have been dismissed. The office says the changes aim to reduce duplication, improve staff efficiency, and strengthen human rights protection.
- Poland has detained a second suspect, a 22-year-old Georgian citizen, in the murder of Russian opposition artist Semyon Skrepetsky (Robert Kuzovkov). The first suspect was also reportedly using a Georgian passport.
- Georgia has lost its ‘Free’ internet status and been downgraded to ‘Partly Free’ in Freedom House’s 2026 Freedom on the Net report. The organisation cited restrictions on online activism and criticism of the ruling party as the reasons for the change.
- Tbilisi City Court has found two people guilty of obstructing the professional activities of two Publika journalists, fining them ₾3,000 ($1,150) and ₾4,000 ($1,540), respectively. Both incidents took place during a protest outside Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze’s campaign headquarters on 8 September 2025.
- Tamaz Elizbarashvili, businessman and owner of a Tbilisi dog shelter, was released from the courtroom yesterday after reaching a plea deal. He was jailed on 1 September following a confrontation with pro-government journalists.
Abkhazia
- There has been an increase in Russian citizens from Abkhazia being denied entry to or exit from Russia when using Abkhazian passports at Moscow airports. Abkhazian Foreign Minister Oleg Bartsits made the statement at a meeting with Russia’s chargé d’affaires, Maksim Litvinov.
- The number of marriages in Abkhazia has decreased by 50%, while the number of divorces has risen by 80% over the past 10 years. Amra Tsushba, a researcher at the Centre for Socio-Economic Studies, disclosed this in an interview with Sputnik radio.
South Ossetia
- South Ossetian President Marat Kambolov has appointed Soslan Margiev as the republic’s prime minister. Kambolov has also appointed Yevgeny Romanov as head of the republic’s State Security Committee.
- A photo exhibition entitled Ordinary Nazism has opened in Tskhinvali (Tskhinval). It was organised by the Russian Embassy in South Ossetia and prepared by the Victory Museum. The exhibition features archival documents, photographs and testimonies relating to the history of Ukrainian nationalism and events in Ukraine between 2014 and 2022.
The North Caucasus
- Chechen authorities have confirmed that there was a gunfight with police in which a un-named local resident was killed. The statement came after rumours have circulated online since Monday about a heightened security presence across the republic. Opposition movement NIYSO reported that the name of the resident was Turpal-Ali Mezhidov. Chechen authorities had not acknowledged a shootout with police since April 2025. Following a meeting with law enforcement officials, Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov wrote that another participant in the shootout had been detained and was being questioned. During the meeting, Chechnya’s Interior Minister Aslan Iraskhanov claimed the men had been preparing an explosion near the Gudermes district administration building and planning an attack on a traffic police checkpoint in the Chernorechye area.
- Electricity was cut off in seven settlements in the Khasavyurt and Khunzakh districts in Daghestan in an emergency outage. The Emergency Ministry promised to restore power to residents by the evening.
- Daghestan has drawn up its first administrative protocol for searching for ‘knowingly extremist materials’ online. The person named in the case is 40-year-old Zaur Seidov. A court date has not yet been set.
- A court in Kabarda–Balkaria has handed a suspended sentence to the director of the cable car in Nalchik, which broke down in the summer of 2025, injuring 13 tourists.
- A Moscow court has remanded two people in custody whom investigators believe were members of a criminal organisation led by Daghestan-born Ibragim Suleimanov. They are accused of committing murder on his instruction.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.