Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has escalated the conflict with the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) by proposing to remove its head, Catholicos Karekin II. His proposed plan envisages temporarily replacing the Catholicos with a married priest who would be deprived of the opportunity to apply for a permanent post.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has called for the memory of the USSR General Secretary Joseph Stalin to be perpetuated. He stated that Stalin, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, made a decisive contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The republics of the North Caucasus continue to lag behind other regions of Russia in terms of salary levels. According to Rosstat, the average salary in Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya and North Ossetia ranges from 44 to 51 thousand rubles.

Ingush blogger Ruslan Dolgiev reported the unlawful use of force by a police officer during his arrest at the Ezmi-Most checkpoint in North Ossetia. According to Dolgiev, the police officer hit him several times without reason, after which other law enforcement officers threw him to the ground, damaging his helmet and clothes.

The Nalchik Garrison Military Court sentenced serviceman Marat Khasanbiyev to five years in prison. He was accused of unauthorized abandonment of his unit under Part 5 of Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Lenur Khalilov, former chairman of the independent Muslim Crimean Tatar community "Alushta", is serving his sentence in penal colony No. 1 in Arkhangelsk. He was transferred to this institution in February of this year. However, almost immediately after his arrival, Khalilov was hospitalized, and he remained in the hospital until mid-July. The reasons for the hospitalization are still unknown, but, according to human rights activists, his lawyer is finding out his current health condition and diagnoses.

The general secretary of the “Dream” and the mayor of the Georgian capital Kakha Kaladze acknowledged the fact of abuse of power by some security forces during the dispersal of pro-European rallies. However, the politician stated that the detained demonstrators are not “prisoners of conscience” because they threw heavy objects and stones at law enforcement officers.

Abibulla Smedlyaev has experienced worsening health in Simferopol's SIZO-2. The arrest took place after searches of Crimean Tatar homes in early February, which resulted in the arrest and charges of terrorism of four more people.

Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said that Russia does not provide specific information on the progress of the investigation into the crash of the AZAL plane. The Russian side explains this by the ongoing investigation.

A powerful mudflow has descended in the city of Tyrnyauz (Kabardino-Balkaria) as a result of heavy rainfall. According to the Kabardino-Balkarian government, a bridge support on the federal highway "Prokhladny - Baksan - Elbrus" was damaged, which led to a complete stop of traffic. A state of emergency has been declared in the Elbrus district and Tyrnyauz.