Over the past five years, the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan has tripled, while average sentences in political cases have roughly doubled. This is the conclusion reached by the BBC after analyzing lists compiled by human rights defenders. In February 2023, the lists included 93 people, while by December of the same year the figure had risen to 254. Since June 2024, the figure has not fallen below 300, and in May 2026, the Institute for Peace and Democracy listed 328 people as political prisoners. At the same time, the average sentence in political cases, which ranged from four to six years in 2022–2025, approached 12 years this year.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has revoked the Russian citizenship of eight people whom the agency considers a threat to national security. They include residents of Adygea and Stavropol Region, as well as two people from the South Caucasus. In a statement published on August 29, the FSB said the decisions were made jointly with the Interior Ministry under the law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation.”

Efforts to deal with the aftermath of the spring floods, which caused widespread destruction in Dagestan, are still underway. Nearly five months after the disaster, the authorities said that one-off payments had been approved for 85,000 residents. According to their figures, the total amount paid has exceeded 3.26 billion roubles. At the same time, the republic has begun issuing housing certificates to people whose homes were completely destroyed or seriously damaged. The first 68 certificates were received by residents of the Khasavyurt and Derbent districts.

On August 24, a resident of Chechnya performed Muslim prayers on a fenced-off section of road in Astrakhan where road-marking work was being carried out. On August 26, a video of the prayer appeared on local social media, after which FSB and police officers identified the Muslim man.

Lena Patyaeva, a friend of missing Chechen native Seda Suleimanova, was charged with an administrative offense after a solo picket in Grozny. She held the protest on August 23, the third anniversary of Suleimanova's disappearance. Under the charges against her, Patyaeva faces up to 30 days in jail or a fine of up to 300,000 rubles.

Elena Patyaeva—a friend of Seda Suleymanova, who disappeared three years ago after being forcibly returned from St. Petersburg to Chechnya—was detained in Grozny. On August 23, Patyaeva stood by the monument to journalists who died for freedom of speech, holding a sign that read: "I demand an investigation into the murder of Seda Suleymanova." This was reported by the human rights project "Slovo Zashchite" (Word for the Defense).

Russian security forces seized at Mineralnye Vody airport the body of Ingushetia native Ilyas Belkharoев, who died in Poland, and detained two men who had come to meet it. Belkharoев’s relatives intended to bury him in Ingushetia, but his body has not yet been handed over to the family.

An exhibition titled Meskhetian Turks — In the Footsteps of a Lost Exile, dedicated to the 1944 deportation of Meskhetian Turks from their ancestral homeland and their subsequent dispersal across different countries, has opened in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

Ukrainian singer Tina Karol has read a letter from Appaz Kurtamet, a Crimean Tatar activist and language teacher currently held in a Russian penal colony. The video was released as part of the "Letters to Free Crimea" initiative and published on the singer's Instagram account.

Seyran Asanov, a Ukrainian serviceman and Crimean Tatar who was taken prisoner by Russia in the autumn of 2024, has been transferred to the "Vladimir Central" prison. A Russian court sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment: Asanov is to serve the first five years in prison and the remaining 15 in a correctional colony. This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC).