The ruling Georgian Dream party, which recently adopted an unpopular law on foreign agents, may have relations with the Russian authorities and intelligence services. Revealing such connections among the Georgian elite would serve to undermine claims that it is defending the country's sovereignty and independence. This statement was made by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing a source in Washington.

The Kiev District Court of Simferopol received materials regarding the editor of the Crimean Tatar newspaper Qirim Bekir Mamutov and the legal entity of the publication. A report was drawn up against the man on administrative offenses related to discrediting the Russian army and abuse of freedom of information.

The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia proposed that the European Union impose sanctions against Georgia due to the adoption of the law on foreign agents. Among the proposed measures are the abolition of the visa-free regime in the EU for Georgian citizens, the freezing of funding for a number of programs and targeted sanctions against officials.

Akhmat Kadyrov was appointed to the post of Minister of the Chechen Republic for Physical Culture and Sports. He replaced Isa Ibragimov in this post, who was transferred to the position of deputy head of the Administration of the Head and Government of the Chechen Republic.

Armenia was heavily dependent on the Russian Federation, including on arms supplies. Reliance on one supplier is not safe. This was stated by the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan. He noted that Yerevan currently has 4-5 main arms import partners.

The Chairman of the Government of Chechnya, Muslim Khuchiev, resigned. The head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced this in his TG channel. He named the reason for Khuchiev’s transfer to another job.

Chairman of the Human Rights Council Valery Fadeev called for a ban on niqabs in Russia, citing local residents’ dissatisfaction with the activities of mosques and possible “motivated” fears of security forces. The essence of these fears, he said, is that the emergence of “ethnic MMA clubs” could “lead to extremism”, and migrants from them could “be preparing for something very bad.”

In Tbilisi, university students marched against the bill on foreign agents. Later, a larger student march was announced. Earlier, at a protest rally, participants burned the flags of the Russian Federation and the ruling Georgian Dream party near the parliament building in the capital.