Incumbent Vladimir Putin has been officially registered as a candidate in Russia's upcoming presidential election, a vote he is expected to easily win with most of his main opponents in jail or outside the country, having fled for security concerns.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced his resignation to give his party time to prepare for general elections that are to be held in the Caucasus nation by October.
One Tajik and one Russian were detained in Istanbul over a church shooting, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said late on January 28, describing the two men as members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist organization.
A Russian court sentenced Maria Rouz, the self-exiled wife of imprisoned anti-war activist Richard Rouz, to 5 1/2 years in prison in absentia on charges of calling for extremist activities and distributing false information about Russia's armed forces involved in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kazakhstan's Committee of National Security said on January 29 that Turkey over the weekend deported to Astana a 22-year-old Kazakh man suspected of joining an armed group in Syria.