News

This summer, the tourist season in Chechnya has not been opened; only local residents spend their vacations in the republic's resorts, because under the coronavirus epidemic the borders of Chechnya are closed for foreign tourists, the resort workers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" assert.

The bosses of the Khasavyurt ambulance station refuse to pay surcharges to medics, taking advantage of the fact that due to lack of tests, not all the infected persons were diagnosed the coronavirus, health workers claim.

Owners of cafés and restaurants in Kalmykia are planning protest actions demanding to ease the restrictive measures in public catering and support the entrepreneurs who have to stay without incomes.

Raip Ashikov, a former head of Makhachkala police, accused of financing terrorism, went to court to demand compensation for the inhuman custody conditions. According to his story, when at the SIZO (pre-trial prison), he was infected with COVID-19 and failed to receive any treatment for more than 40 days.

With the restart of Friday prayers in the Makhachkala "Tangim" Mosque, law enforcers gathered near it and began stopping believers' cars of and copying drivers' and passengers' personal data.

The citizens of Azerbaijan, who have arrived from Dagestan to their homeland, are satisfied with the living conditions in the quarantine tent camp set up near the Samur border checkpoint. Until the end of quarantine, they are forbidden to contact their relatives, since COVID-19 is diagnosed in some of the arrivals.

The "Legal Initiative" will challenge the investigators' refusal to institute criminal proceedings against a clinic in Magas where a nine-year-old girl was subjected to female circumcision surgery. The investigators failed to carry out a thorough check into the activities of the clinic, human rights defenders claim.

In France, the police detained five more participants of clashes between members of the Chechen and Maghrib Diasporas in Dijon. Two detainees are charged with using violence.

A young man who introduced himself as a brother of Minkail Malizaev, a blogger living in Europe and criticizing the Chechen authorities, recorded a video message with apologizes for the blogger.

Despite the crisis in Azerbaijan and Armenia caused by the pandemic, there is still a threat of the resumption of large-scale hostilities in the Karabakh conflict zone. Meanwhile, the key factor of the possible escalation is not the intensity of the shelling attacks, but the lack of progress towards a political settlement. This opinion was voiced by Azerbaijani military analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

On July 9, Azerbaijani political émigrés held four protest actions in the German capital urging the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the US Embassy and the EU mission to introduce sanctions against Azerbaijani officials for harassing their political opponents.

On July 9, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) treated the assumptions that the leadership of Chechnya had to do with the murder of Mamikhan Umarov in Vienna as insinuations that impede an objective inquiry into the murder.

The ex-husband of Gullya Kazanbieva, a resident of Makhachkala, used to brutally beat her up even after a divorce, but investigators have qualified domestic violence under a too lenient article. The woman fears for its life; however, complaints submitted to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) are ignored, advocates assert.

To move from a spontaneous camp into the tent one set up near Kullar, Azerbaijani citizens need to undergo coronavirus testing, but the issuance of test results is highly protracted. Besides, camp residents complain about an unfair compilation of lists of returnees to Azerbaijan.

Western special services have organized the killings of bloggers Mamikhan Umarov and Imran Aliev in order to impose responsibility for these crimes on the Chechen leadership, Ramzan Kadyrov has stated.

Policemen have drawn up protocols on ten protesters outside the Armenian government building. They complained that they had been unemployed for five months due to the closure of restaurants.

On July 8, a protest action was held in front of the building for the Supreme Council of Adjara. Protestors demanded from the government to open the state border with Turkey or pay compensation for the loss of earnings from work in the neighbouring country.

The killing in Vienna of Mamikhan Umarov, a refugee from Chechnya, might have been a contract murder or motivated by a domestic conflict, the Austrian police announce contrary to the statements voiced by members of the Chechen Diaspora. A lawsuit based on the Mamikhan Umarov's death may be filed against the Austrian authorities for their failure to provide the protection for the asylum seeker from Chechnya, believes Khusein Iskhanov, a member of the Chechen Diaspora.

On July 8, law enforcers discovered a hiding arranged by militants in a forest on the outskirts of the Alkhazurovo village in the Urus-Martan District, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learned from an official of the Chechen military commandant's office.

In Chechnya, human rights defenders and lawyers suggest that public officers may affect the forensic examination in the case on the resonant death of Madina Umaeva, a resident of Gudermes.