The Patriarchate of Georgia made the first statement regarding the scandal associated with the icon of Matryona of Moscow, located in the Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi. Let us remind you that the stamp of the icon depicts Joseph Stalin.

In the Chechen city of Shali, the headquarters of the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment burned down. It is reported that the building burned down with all the documents.

The names of more residents of Chechnya who died in the war with Ukraine have been named. These are the commander of the Akhmat platoon Adam Sadulaev, Interior Ministry employee Magomed Bachaev, volunteer Imam Idalov and Defense Ministry serviceman Zelimkhan Khazhikhanov. Their death was confirmed by a report from the Grozny Department of Education in Grozny.

A rally is taking place in Tbilisi near the house of activist Nata Peradze. According to the protesters, a woman poured paint on the icon of the Matrona of Moscow in the Sameba Cathedral. The icon depicts a man resembling USSR Secretary General Joseph Stalin.

At night, a fire broke out in the Republican Perinatal Center in Baku. The deaths of four newborns were reported. Three more people suffered smoke inhalation and were hospitalized.

Today in Makhachkala a traditional picket took place in support of political prisoner-journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiev. The action was attended by the deputy editor-in-chief of the Chernovik publication Magomed Magomedov and his colleagues.

“An icon is something that people pray to. But the icon of Stalin as such does not exist.” This is how the head of the Public Relations Service of the Patriarchate of Georgia, Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, commented on the appearance of an icon with USSR Secretary General Joseph Stalin in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Tsminda Sameba) in Tbilisi.

Islam is a powerful religion, and devoutly religious fanatics are capable of any sacrifice in order to defend their idea of the structure of the world, says Russian State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev. “We see how they are conquering more and more living space,” he said.

Ingushetia is recognized as one of the regions with the largest increase in street crime (robberies, thefts, etc.). Over the 11 months of 2023, the dynamics were +29% compared to the same period in 2022. This was reported in the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

There are 1,407 schools with 481 thousand students in Dagestan. Among these institutions, 143 are recognized as emergency and another 714 are in need of major repairs. In fact, over half of the schools in Dagestan are not equipped for full-fledged education due to the deterioration of buildings and infrastructure.