On May 2, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its annual report on global press freedom. For the first time since 2002, when the annual ranking began, the press freedom situation was rated as difficult worldwide. The report's authors believe economic pressure is the main factor behind the global decline in the Press Freedom Index.

On June 25, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that an attempted coup by the "criminal-oligarchic clergy" had been thwarted. Following house searches, 16 people were detained, including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the "Holy Struggle" movement, who criticized the government for its decisions on Nagorno-Karabakh and led protests last spring. But Pashinyan hasn't stopped there and is threatening to remove the Catholicos of All Armenians.

On June 28, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov married his third son, 17-year-old Adam, known for beating defendant Nikita Zhuravel, his collection of orders and medals, and his indecently rapid rise through the Chechen security forces. On their wedding day, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the newlyweds and their parents.

Representatives of Chechen human rights organizations and diaspora groups held rallies in Brussels and Vienna in support of their fellow refugees facing imprisonment in Europe or deportation to Russia.

On May 15, the European Court of Human Rights released its decision on the attack on participants of a press tour in Chechnya in 2016. The ECHR found that Russia failed to ensure the victims' right to an effective investigation and awarded them €6,000 in compensation.

On June 25, the Supreme Court of Dagestan concluded another trial concerning the armed incursion of Shamil Basayev and Khattab into the republic in August 1999. This time, Sochi resident Alexander Ponomarenko, who claims he has never been to Dagestan, was sentenced to a lengthy prison term. Such cases are routinely pursued by investigators and the prosecutor's office. In May and June alone, at least seven people were convicted for the events of 1999-2000, and six more were detained and will soon appear in court.

On May 21, memorial events dedicated to the victims of the Russo-Caucasian War were held in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Turkey, and other regions where the Adyghe people live. In Nalchik, several people were detained during a procession in memory of those who died for the independence of the Circassian people.

On the night of May 1, the Russian army struck Ukraine with five Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 170 drones of various types. The Odessa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, and Kyiv regions were damaged. In Odessa, two people were killed and 15 were injured. Several fires broke out, and multi-story residential and private buildings, a supermarket, a school, and cars were

On June 27, in Yekaterinburg, officers from the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Russian National Guard conducted a joint raid on apartments housing Azerbaijanis. Two of those detained during the raid—brothers Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov—died from beatings, sparking a diplomatic conflict between Russia and Azerbaijan.

On the night of June 26, an explosion occurred near the North Caucasus Police College on Mutaliyev Street in the Ingush city of Nazran. There were no injuries.