All these cases are united not only by some delay in retribution. Lawyers note that the charges are “tailored” according to one template: no objective evidence, only the testimony of previously convicted persons, which are also classified. Their names are unknown, their faces are hidden even in court, so their evidence cannot be verified or refuted.
As Memorial found out, cases of attacks on Pskov paratroopers are being investigated by one group of investigators from the Main Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the North Caucasus Federal District, and its core composition does not actually change.
Over the years, the number of these criminal cases is only growing. The wording in the documents is copied and migrated from one criminal case to another, only the names change.
The aforementioned list of 69 captured militants, allegedly compiled back in 2000, but first surfaced only 20 years later in the case of M. Bashaev, convicted by the Shatoisky District Court in November 2021, also raises doubts. Despite the defense's requests, the list remains classified. Only fragments from it appear in the cases, so law enforcement officers still have sufficient groundwork for future charges.

A native of Dagestan, Renat Shambilov, received a much more lenient punishment under the same article. The Khasavyurt District Court sentenced him to four years and seven months in prison on charges of attacking Russian military personnel in 1999.

The trial of Zagir Yakubov and Rasul Mailubaev from the Stavropol Territory has already been completed. The Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced both to 14 years of maximum security for participation in an attack on Russian military personnel in the Botlikhsky district of Dagestan.

On January 10, the Southern District Military Court began the trial of Chechen Magomed Alkhanov, who is accused of participating in an attack on Pskov paratroopers in the Shatoi region of Chechnya in 2000.

The Russian army continues to storm Soledar and shell Ukrainian cities. Kharkov, Ochakov and Kurakhovka were struck. Two people were killed and dozens were injured.

On January 8, the Chechen opposition telegram channels 1ADAT and NIYSO reported mass kidnappings by security forces in the village of Alkhan-Kala, located 15 kilometers from Grozny. According to the chairman of the United Force movement, Dzhambulat Suleymanov, Kadyrov’s supporters could consider the villagers an “anti-government cell” because of their interest in an “unreliable” Internet resource.

Russian forces shelled Kharkov, Zaporozhye region, Kherson and Kherson region. The suburb of Bakhmut was almost completely destroyed. Most of the population left the city.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that, despite the declared “truce,” the Russian army is advancing in the Bakhmut direction.

The UN dissolved the commission of inquiry into the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners in a colony in the Donetsk region in July 2022, because it could not obtain security guarantees for investigators from participants in the armed conflict in Ukraine.