Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 9 signed a decree granting citizenship to 44 foreign nationals, including Ratko Samac, a former officer of the Yugoslav army who is wanted in Bosnia-Herzegovina for war crimes he allegedly committed in 1993.
A Moscow court on January 9 extended pretrial detention until at least March 10 for theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriichuk, who were arrested in May last year on charges of justification of terrorism in production of the play Finist The Brave Falcon.
France accused Azerbaijan on January 9 of holding a French national arbitrarily and demanded his immediate release after Baku's ambassador to France said the man had been arrested on December 4 on suspicion of espionage.
A court in St. Petersburg on January 9 sentenced Maksim Moiseyev, the singer of the Russian punk rock group Shchenki (Puppies), to 10 days in jail on a hooliganism charge.