Regional
- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explained that his vision of the peace deal with Azerbaijan includes an Armenian border of 29,743 square metres, the exchange of enclaves and exclaves, and open transit links.
- Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan suggested during the Warsaw Security Forum that the Eastern Partnership should evolve from a common framework into a flexible platform that lets each partner find its own way to Europe.
Armenia
- Labour Minister Arsen Torosyan said that state programmes for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees aim to help them settle and integrate into Armenian society. However, he added that this policy should not prevent displaced people from pursuing their rights through international conventions.
- The Yerevan City Council has granted the Hrazdan Gorge the status of a specially protected natural area of local significance.
- The Yerevan municipality is demolishing what it describes as illegal buildings located on the pavements in the Ajapnyak district.
Azerbaijan
- Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazadeh, head of the Caucasus Muslims Board, has said that Azerbaijan has not banned the hijab in schools. ‘Azerbaijan separates religion from the state, and schools from religion,’ Pashazadeh said. He added that certain forces, both inside and outside the country, were trying to spread claims that Muslims were being mistreated in Azerbaijan.
- A protest was held yesterday outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in Ankara by members of the Köklü Değişim movement. Köklü Değişim is a media and publishing platform closely associated with Hizb ut-Tahrir’s activities in Turkey. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an organisation founded in Palestine that advocates for the establishment of a state governed by Islamic law.
Georgia
- Constitutional Court Judge Manana Kobakhidze has resigned from her post after asking to not be involved in the government’s plan to ban the opposition. The other judges rejected her request. She was one of the founders of Georgian Dream, served as the party’s chair, and was a member of parliament.
- Georgia’s Constitutional Court has accepted Georgian Dream’s lawsuit seeking to ban opposition parties for substantive review. According to a court notice published yesterday, the case will be heard by the court’s Plenum, consisting of seven judges.
- The Georgian Orthodox Church has denied accreditation to opposition-leaning TV channels TV Pirveli and Formula for the Mtskhetoba (Svetitskhovloba) celebration. Church spokesperson Andria Jaghmaidze has accused both channels of repeatedly violating internal rules despite several warnings. He said their reporters had left the areas designated for the media without permission, disrupting religious services.
- An activist who accused court bailiffs of violence is now facing a complaint from the same officers over alleged insults. Ruska Mchedlidze says the Interior Ministry has launched administrative proceedings against her. She is accused of insulting court bailiffs on 29 July.
Abkhazia
- Alik Agrba, former CEO of SP Put-A (‘SP Path-A’), has been found guilty of abuse of authority that caused damage to the Abkhazian Railway state unitary enterprise. According to the case materials, the former director of Abkhazian Railway signed a contract with Agrba for the supply of two used electric trains worth ₽18 million ($220,000) each, despite Agrba was knowing that they could only be used for scrap metal.
South Ossetia
- President Marat Kambolov has nominated former judge Soslan Margiev for the post of head of government of the republic.
- According to unconfirmed reports, former Deputy Interior Minister Atsamaz Sagkaev distributed 400 firearms to his subordinates as awards, including weapons intended exclusively for special forces units. He allegedly did so in preparation for retaining power by force. A criminal case has been opened against him on suspicion of abuse of official powers.
The North Caucasus
- Since the beginning of 2026, 260 people have been detained in the North Caucasus on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks, financing terrorist activities, and promoting or justifying terrorism. Most of them were under the age of 20, and some were minors, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov said at a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. Last year, 280 people were detained over the course of the entire year.
- Following the Yemeni Houthis’ attack on Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh airport, Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov has said that US bases in the Middle East should be targeted, but that civilian facilities ‘cannot be justified’.
- Human rights defenders helped a gay man who fled Chechnya obtain protection in Europe. According to NC SOS Crisis Group, he had previously been detained in Chechnya during a set-up meeting organised by security force officers.
- Ramina Gandaloeva, a resident of Ingushetia, appealed to Kadyrov to intervene in a family dispute over a child. According to Gandaloeva, her former husband, Mikail Gandaloev, took their six-month-old child and subsequently stabbed one of her brothers during a confrontation. After the parties reconciled and a court ruled that the child should be returned to the mother, he pressed charges against her brothers.
- A court has rejected a lawsuit by former senator from Karachay–Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov, who is serving a life sentence at the Black Dolphin penal colony, seeking to have his status as a prisoner considered prone to attacking prison staff and law enforcement officers revoked.
- Since 2022, the authorities in Adygea have allocated almost ₽7.7 billion ($90 million) to support soldiers fighting in Ukraine and their families, Head Murat Kumpilov said during a meeting with Sergei Usmanov, executive director of the Defenders of the Fatherland state foundation. Adygea’s annual budget revenue amounts to around ₽40–50 billion ($470–$600 million).
- In Ingushetia, a resident of the village of Ekazhevo was detained for forcibly holding his wife in their home and firing a shotgun towards a police officer who had arrived to help her.
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.