News

In Rostov-on-Don, the military court found a native of Makhachkala guilty of transferring money to his nephew, who fought in Syria on the side of the "Islamic State" (IS), recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia.

In response to a question about the conspiracy, the leader of Chechnya said that he had stopped some negotiations between officials. Ramzan Kadyrov mentioned Ibragim Temirbaev, the former Mayor of Argun, as his detractor.

Since September, internally displaced persons (IDPs), or forced migrants, have been conducting a protest rally at a building of the Ministry of Refugees, Labour, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia, where they have arranged a sleeping corner for themselves. The protestors claim that the money allocated by the state for rented housing is not enough.

At a press conference held on December 23, Ramzan Kadyrov declared the authorities of Russia and Chechnya were not involved in the killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin. Following President Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov also called Zelimkhan Khangoshvili a terrorist.

Ironic comments were made by social network users to the video with the speech by Zamid Chalaev, the commander of the Akhmat Kadyrov patrol-and-post service (PPS) regiment in Chechnya; while local residents report about the escalation of anxiety atmosphere in the republic.

On December 23, law enforcers were on duty during prayer at the Red Mosque in Astrakhan, and also conducted house-to-house raids in the district where Muslims live. Such law enforcers' raid was not the first one in the city.

On December 22, Kenan Azizli, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was arrested for ten days on charges of disobedience to the police. The PFPA believes that he is prosecuted on the basis of trumped-up charges for political reasons.

Two Chechen law enforcers accused of kidnapping Alexei Kardashov, a resident of the city of Khasavyurt, were transferred from SIZO (pre-trial prison) under house arrest; and the charge itself has been eased, the Committee against Torture (CaT) has reported. Israeli activists link the slip in the investigation with the interest of Chechen authorities.

Ballot papers throws-in, "carousels", removal of observers from polling stations and other irregularities have been fixed at the municipal elections in Azerbaijan by the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Education (CEM&DE). Analysts pointed to the absence of an acute rivalry among candidates.

Colleagues of Abdulmumin Gadjiev have timed their action demanding to objectively investigate the case of the arrested journalist of the "Chernovik" weekly to the visit of Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to Dagestan.

Over the past two months, nine more persons have been added to the list of Russian political prisoners, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has declared. The updated list includes Yegor Lesnykh, a native of the city of Volzhsky, convicted under the "Moscow case".

The court has fined a resident of the Rutul District of Dagestan, at whose home law enforcers found a flag of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization banned in Russia by he court, the FSB has informed.

A man who attacked a FSB building in Moscow could have been taken alive, but he was killed, like it often happens during special operations in the Caucasus, notes Caucasus expert Alexei Malashenko. The attack occurred against the backdrop of a speech by President Vladimir Putin, and that recalled the events of 2014, when militants attacked Grozny on the day of the Russian President's address to the Federal Assembly.

The positions of the Azerbaijani troops in the Karabakh conflict zone and in villages on the border with Armenia were shelled 23 times within 24 hours, including from sniper rifles, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reported.

President Putin's answers to questions on the problems of the southern regions of Russia; sentence to a Georgian doctor in South Ossetia; trials in cases against Ingush activists in the Stavropol Territory; attack on a son of the first president of Georgia in Tbilisi; opening of a monument to Stalin in Volgograd, and request of the Georgian Communists to restore the monument to the Soviet leader in Gori, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of December 16-22, 2019, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Back in 2012, an official of the Russia's FSB handed information about the wanted Zelimkhan Khangoshvili over to German law enforcement bodies, "Der Spiegel" writes.

On Stalin's birthday, members of the Georgian Communist Party and their supporters held a rally in his homeland, the city of Gori, demanding t0 reinstall hat the monument to the former Soviet leader, which was dismantled nine years ago.

The Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has posted on the Instagram a video depicting a testimony of the minor, of raping whom Musa Aliev, a resident of Mutsalaul, who has reported torture, is suspected. Users have criticized the MIA for posting the video with a child.

On December 20, solo pickets were held in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don, demanding to release political prisoners. In Rostov-on-Don, protesters went out to their action with posters in support of activists Vladislav Mordasov, Yan Sidorov, and Anastasia Shevchenko.

On the border with Abkhazia, members of the Georgian "Golos" (Vote) movement have held an action demanding to liberate doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili, convicted for violating the Georgian-South-Ossetian border.