During the week from January 19 to 25, one person was killed in armed and terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts.

During the week from January 19 to January 25, 2026, two casualties were recorded in armed and terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts of Russia: one person was killed, one was wounded. These are the results of the "Caucasian Knot" calculations, based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

As wrote "Caucasian Knot", from January 5 to January 18, 2026, not a single victim was recorded in armed and terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts of Russia.

Murder of a Kislovodsk resident by security forces

On January 20, security forces reported the murder of a Kislovodsk resident, a suspect in the case of preparing a terrorist attack in Stavropol. According to the FSB, the resident A Kislovodsk resident, born in 1982, was suspected of plotting a terrorist attack that was foiled in December 2025 in Stavropol. The man offered armed resistance during an arrest attempt.

Schoolboy Stabbed

On January 19, a security guard at a Derbent school stabbed one of the students in the neck while playing snowballs and hit the guard. The 75-year-old man has been detained, and investigators are conducting an investigation. He was not at work on the day of the incident, and the incident occurred outside the school grounds. The teenager's injury is classified as minor. According to the department, security forces learned of the incident "while monitoring social media."

Destruction of memorial plaques to Anna Politkovskaya and protests In Memory

Civil Initiative activists placed a temporary plaque on the house where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered, replacing the one destroyed on January 18. On January 19, the temporary plaque was destroyed. Representatives of a far-right organization, designated as terrorist, claimed involvement in the destruction of the first plaque. The man who smashed the plaque was fined 1,000 rubles. he denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the plaque "fell and broke on its own." By January 22, activists had replaced the broken memorial plaque again, but the temporary plaque was destroyed for the third time, and a resident of Politkovskaya’s building claimed that the temporary plaques had been deliberately destroyed. On the evening of January 23, a third temporary plaque was installed, and its disappearance was discovered on January 24. That same day, activists again  restored it, which had disappeared during the day on January 25. Persistent attempts to destroy the plaque only bring Anna Politkovskaya's murder back into the spotlight, her ex-husband emphasized.

On January 19, on the 17th anniversary of the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, memorial events were held in Russian cities, including Rostov-on-Don and Baksan. Three participants in the memorial event were detained in Samara. The Yabloko party appealed to the mayor of Moscow with a call to install a memorial plaque on Prechistenka at the site of the murder of Markelov and Baburova.

Detentions, Arrests, and Trials on Terrorism-Related Charges

The Southern District Military Court has received a criminal case against Sagid Murtazaliev, who previously headed the Kizlyar District and the Pension Fund of Dagestan. He is accused of organizing the murder of a high-ranking police officer and an assassination attempt on a municipal deputy, as well as financing terrorism in 2009-2010. The case, like the first one, for abuse of power and fraud, will be tried in absentia, as Murtazaliev remains wanted.

A Moscow court arrested Nalchik businessman Artur Zhakamukhov on charges of justifying terrorism. Zhakamukhov had lived in the United States in recent years and criticized Putin on social media. His name was added to the Rosfinmonitoring registry of terrorists and extremists. No source has disclosed the reasons for Artur Zhakamukhov's return to Russia from the United States. There is also no information about when exactly he returned and was detained.

On January 21, the Second Western District Military Court sentenced Ingush natives Batukhan Tochiyev and Ramazan Padiev to 22 and 18 years, respectively, and Baku native Robert Safaryan to 25 years in prison. The perpetrator of the terrorist attack, Akhmadzhon Kurbonov, which killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant, has been sentenced to life in prison.

On January 22, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Sochi resident Kirill Sidorov to 11 years in prison for transmitting photographs of city infrastructure to members of the "Freedom of Russia Legion," which is designated a terrorist organization, its activities prohibited in Russia.

"Caucasian Knot" publishes monthly, quarterly, and annual statistics on victims of the armed conflict in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District in the "North Caucasus - Statistics" section victims".

* Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.