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).
A citizen of Armenia, former Minister of State of Nagorno-Karabakh Ruben Vardanyan was brought to justice on charges of financing terrorism, illegally crossing the state border to commit terrorist attacks and organizing illegal armed groups. The State Security Service of Azerbaijan reported this.
The day before, Vardanyan was detained by Azerbaijani border guards. Previously, he was a citizen of the Russian Federation, a billionaire on the Forbes list. Vardanyan has repeatedly criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for “surrendering” Karabakh and called on the Russian leadership to provide support to the region and Armenia.
Today it was announced that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will officially cease to exist in 2024. Nikol Pashinyan said that there will be no Armenians left in the region in the coming days: “This is an act of ethnic cleansing and deprivation of the homeland, which we have already talked about more than once.” Almost half of the Armenian population of the unrecognized republic left for Armenia.