The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don issued 425 convictions under Russia's "terrorism" laws in the first half of 2026, accounting for more than a third of all such rulings nationwide, according to a study by the human rights project First Department and the independent Parubets Analytics research centre.
Azerbaijan's State Security Service (SSS) has accused Iranian intelligence agencies, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), of plotting a series of terrorist attacks in the country. According to Minval, the SSS announced the arrest of several suspects, from whom explosive devices were seized.
According to the agency, the targets were strategic facilities such as the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Israeli embassy, as well as a Jewish community leader and a synagogue. Several individuals were detained during the operation, and three explosive devices, ready for transfer to third parties, were seized. This information comes amid deteriorating Azerbaijani-Iranian relations following the drone attack on the city of Nakhchivan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev classified the attack as a terrorist act and placed the country's defense forces on alert. The Iranian Armed Forces have blamed Israel for the attack, while the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has confirmed the Iranian origin of the drones used.