Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev missed the informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg due to a busy work schedule. Aliyev's administration also noted that his absence from the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on December 21 was due to Azerbaijan not being a member of the organization.
A complaint was filed with the cassation court in defense of a native of Ingushetia, Daud Mamilov, who was sentenced to 8 years on charges of involvement in the activities of the “Islamic State” (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).
Lawyer Lyudmila Tolstonogova noted that the defense presented the court with a sufficient package of materials indicating the innocence of Daud Mamilov. During the searches, no prohibited items were found in his house. Secret witnesses did not mention him at all during interrogations, and neighbors speak of him as a restrained and non-conflict person. In fact, the courts based the verdict on non-existent, unexamined testimony, and did not motivate the conclusions that the person involved had direct intent to finance terrorist activities.
In July 2022, a court in Moscow sentenced Mamilov to eight years in prison for involvement in the activities of the Islamic State. In his last speech, the defendant called the charges far-fetched and said that he insisted on his innocence, even when he was tortured and threatened. However, the court found the man guilty of facilitating terrorist activities.