The International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed strong disapproval of the prison terms requested by the prosecutor for nine activists and journalists from Toplum TV, which range from 13 to 16 years. Gulnoza Said, CPJ program coordinator, emphasized that such harsh punishments demonstrate the Azerbaijani authorities' desire to respond to courageous reporting and sow a climate of fear.

15-year-old Chechen boy Muslim Murdiyev was transferred from a Moscow pretrial detention center to a juvenile correctional facility in the Volgograd region. The boy's mother appealed to Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov, asking them to ensure her son's safety.

Arrested Azerbaijani opposition journalist Afgan Sadigov has been banned from making phone calls and communicating with his relatives. He is currently being held in a pretrial detention facility in the Kurdakhani village of Baku, his wife reported.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to a question about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had congratulated his party on its victory in the parliamentary elections.

A court in Stavropol Krai has sentenced Makhach Bashirov, who is accused of financing terrorism. The Southern District Military Court sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The defendant's family insists that shortly before his arrest, he transferred two thousand rubles to charity.

The Russian Ambassador to Armenia, Sergey Kopyrkin, returned to Yerevan after consultations in Moscow and resumed his diplomatic duties.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the European Union of attempting to directly control the election campaign in Armenia. 

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, announced that the European Union is making the imposition of sanctions against Russia a condition for maintaining the country's visa-free status. According to him, Brussels is insisting that Tbilisi join the anti-Russian sanctions.