Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Armenia on August 18 for a two-day official visit. In Yerevan, he held a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, after which the talks continued in an expanded format. The parties summed up the results at a joint press conference.

The leader of the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Ali Karimli accused the country's President Ilham Aliyev of establishing "harsh authoritarianism". He spoke about the systematic persecution of the opposition and independent journalists.

Zarema Musayeva decided to appeal the sentence in the new criminal case after reading the reasoning of the decision of the Shali City Court of Chechnya. On August 6, she was sentenced to 3 years and 11 months in a penal colony on charges of disrupting the activities of a correctional institution.

A new criminal case has been opened against a native of Chechnya, Said-Akhmed Visangiriyev, who previously reported torture in penal colony No. 3 in the Vladimir region. He is charged with assault.

The health condition of Crimean Tatar activist Akim Bekirov, sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, raises serious concerns.

Cases of persecution of leaders of the Azerbaijani diaspora have become more frequent in Russia. Thus, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Chelyabinsk region, Arshad Khankishiyev, was deprived of Russian citizenship. The media associate this decision with "propaganda of ethno-separatism" and support for oppositionist Alexei Navalny.

Online trade in the North Caucasus Federal District is experiencing rapid growth. In the first half of 2025, the volume of online sales increased by 55% compared to the same period last year, reaching 177 billion rubles.

The Ingush Telegram channel "Wanted Ingushetia", associated with security forces, published a video with Imam Nazir Dzeitov, accused of illegal possession of weapons. In the video, Dzeitov claims that he was in contact with Ansar Garkkho, the head of the "Ingush Independence Committee".

The head of Dagestan Sergey Melikov confirmed the information about the injury of the deputy commander of the North group of forces, Lieutenant General Esedulla Abachev.

After new Russian strikes on facilities of the Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR located in Ukraine, calls for more decisive actions than just statements are being heard in Baku.