Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed his dissatisfaction with the country's church's transformation into a political party. He noted the lack of spiritual sermons in regular churches, claiming that priests instead read political texts, which he considered unacceptable.

Ingushetia and other regions of the North Caucasus have the lowest personal income levels in Russia. In the RIA Novosti rating, Ingushetia ranked 85th, with a per capita income to cost ratio of 1.20 and a per capita income of 26,800 rubles per month, the lowest in the country.

Elbai Karimli, a 23-year-old activist for the opposition Popular Front Party, has died in an Azerbaijani prison. He was previously recognized as a political prisoner and sentenced to five years for writing "Stalin" on a monument to Heydar Aliyev, the former president and father of current President Ilham Aliyev.

On December 15, 2011, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, the founder of the Chernovik newspaper, was murdered in Makhachkala. Fourteen years after the tragedy, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the sentences of those found guilty of the murder.