Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov congratulated Vladimir Putin on his birthday and stated that the Russian president's name holds "special significance" for the Chechen people. According to Kadyrov, the region will "never forget" the support Putin extended to his father—Chechnya’s first president, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov—"at a time when the future of the Chechen Republic depended on the decisions being made."
In Armenia, actions of disobedience by the opposition movement “Tavush in the name of the Motherland” continued. The participants blocked several highways between Yerevan and other cities, and several streets were blocked in the center of the capital. Police detained more than 70 protesters.
The day before, tens of thousands of people rallied in Yerevan demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He is accused of surrendering the territories of Armenia to Azerbaijan. The opposition nominated a priest, the head of the Tavush diocese, Bagrat Galstanyan, to the post of interim Prime Minister of Armenia.
“As I already said in the square, you once considered yourself very democratic. The same people once brought you to power. We came for a simple conversation, a conversation on one topic - about your peaceful departure, without shocks. Just walk away without making any unnecessary moves. You are already the former, and we are the current ones. I invite you to a meeting with the present,” said the archbishop at the government dachas.
Pashinyan responded to the situation with a statement that the Armenian Apostolic Church can be an “agent of influence” since historical times.