Opposition figure Gulu Mammadli stated that the arrest of Ali Karimli, leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was expected, but the reasons go beyond simple criticism of the authorities. According to Mammadli, Karimli's publications in major Western media have increased his political significance and visibility abroad, which has caused concern among the Azerbaijani authorities.
Karachay-Cherkessia and Ingushetia took 82nd-83rd places in the ranking of socio-economic situation. Among all regions of the Russian Federation, the situation is worse only in the Jewish Autonomous Region and Tyva, RIA Novosti reports.
Also in the top ten outsiders were Chechnya, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Dagestan is in 61st place. The leaders of the rating were Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tatarstan.
The subjects of the Russian Federation were ranked according to several criteria: volume of production of goods and services, budget revenues, number of people employed in the economy, retail trade turnover, unemployment rate, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, share of the population with incomes below the poverty line, etc.
Let us recall that recently the regions of the North Caucasian Federal District were recognized as the worst in terms of family well-being. Karachay-Cherkessia, Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia took 80th to 84th places. There, a family with one or two children has an average of 10 to 2 thousand rubles left after minimum expenses.