The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over Armenia's rapprochement with the European Union. In an interview with TASS, Vladislav Maslennikov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Problems, stated that this could negatively impact relations with Russia and integration processes in the post-Soviet space.
The Southern District Military Court passed a sentence on seven prisoners of colony No. 2 in Kalmykia, finding them guilty of creating a terrorist community. Ruslan Surkhaev, Magomed Huseynov, Yuri Kaishev, Ramazan Dibirov, Timur Abdullayev, Makhmud Mugutdinov and Abdulmalik Ramazanov were imprisoned for terms ranging from 7.5 to 23 years.
According to investigators, in mid-2013, Shakhban Gasanov, a native of Dagestan, while serving a sentence for arms trafficking in the Kalmyk IK-2, created a terrorist cell there. In 2015, he was released, came to Dagestan, declared himself the head of an illegal armed formation, and was soon killed by security forces. Meanwhile, the organization created by Gasanov included more than 100 convicts.
Earlier, the court sentenced 17 members of the cell from the Kalmyk colony to long terms. Criminal cases against another 21 people are pending. According to human rights activists, information about the terrorist network is similar to a PR campaign by the security forces in order to receive prizes, titles and awards.