According to a report by Hraparak, an unspoken competition for the presidential seat has flared up in Armenia among representatives of the ruling Civil Contract party. The source reports that this standoff is due to reports of incumbent President Vahagn Khachaturyan's significant health problems, which presumably will prevent him from completing his term in office.

The Moscow City Court upheld the arrest in absentia of former Dagestan People's Assembly deputy Akhmedpasha Umakhanov. This decision is necessary for placing him on the international wanted list.

The sons of the Chechen leader, Akhmat, Adam, and Ali Kadyrov, met with Prince Turki bin Mohammed Al Saud in Saudi Arabia. Ramzan Kadyrov announced this on his Telegram channel.

Moscow sent a note of protest to Yerevan over the damage to the "Mother Armenia" memorial to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War in Gyumri. This was stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who used the incident to launch a new series of accusations against the Armenian authorities.

For 30 years, while Azerbaijani territories were under occupation, fruitless negotiations were repeatedly held, and France, Russia, and the United States, as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and with a mandate to achieve peace and liberate our territories from occupation, were unable to force Armenia to withdraw from Azerbaijani territory, stated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, speaking at the opening of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Baku.

In the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia, a court sentenced Shalva Khizanishvili to six years and nine months in prison. He was accused of espionage and illegal possession of weapons.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared his intention to "destroy" the political forces represented by the "three-headed oligarchy" led by former President Robert Kocharyan and businessmen Samvel Karapetyan and Gagik Tsarukyan.

Georgia has asked Luxembourg to facilitate the resumption of dialogue with the EU. Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, announced this following a visit to Luxembourg.

The European Commission is actively developing measures to strengthen trade ties with Armenia in response to economic sanctions imposed by Russia. Specifically, special trade initiatives are being developed to reduce duties on Armenian food and agricultural exports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the head of North Ossetia, Sergei Menyailo, in the Kremlin. Menyailo reported to the president on 37 support measures currently in place in the republic for military personnel and their families.