News

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has announced its plans to close its Embassy in Baku and open it in Tbilisi. The Embassy in Turkey will be in charge of relationships with Azerbaijan, the MFA has stated. According to the opposition, the closure of the Embassy has to do with a regress of democracy in Azerbaijan.

The signatories to the petition have called on Georgian authorities to allow Zaza Saralidze, the father of the murdered schoolboy, to hold his protest action at the parliament building, where Tbilisi Mayoralty plans to set up a New Year Tree.

The ruling "Georgian Dream-Democratic Movement" Party has launched an active campaign on the eve of the second round of presidential election; while the opposition has reported violations. Political analysts do not expect any significant increase in voter turnout.

Within the past 24 hours, positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the Karabakh conflict zone were shelled for 28 times, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated.

The new map of Chechnya, posted with account of the agreement on the Chechen-Ingush border, show Lake Kezenoy-Am, located on the Chechen-Dagestani border, as well as a part of the territory near the Dagestani village of Ansalta, within the territory of Chechnya, the "Novoe Delo" wrote on November 10.

In the course of a clash with policemen, who prevented protesters in Tbilisi from setting up tents, Zaza Saralidze felt bad and was taken to a hospital. His supporters started a rally.

For a week already, the journalist Seymour Khazi, convicted in Azerbaijan, cannot receive letters collected by activists in his support, his wife has stated.

The exhibition "Realism" of video works by Polish film director Artur Żmijewski has been opened in Krasnodar. Heroes of the videos are soldiers who became disabled during the wars in Chechnya.

Over the past day, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan has registered 30 cases of violation of the ceasefire regime on the contact line of troops in the Karabakh conflict zone.

The state leaders have not agreed on a new candidate for the post of the CSTO Secretary General at the CSTO summit in Astana. On December 6, discussion of the issue will be continued. Kazakhstan and Belarus are struggling behind the scenes in attempts to use the situation with the appointment of the CSTO Secretary General and to get benefits for themselves, analysts say.

A video from the period of the ruling of Mikhail Saakashvili, the third President of Georgia, with his confession to unleashing the Five-Day War, has been made public on the eve of the second round of the presidential election in the country. The video will not have a serious impact on the will of voters with their attraction to the side of Salome Zuraishvili, believe Georgian political analysts.

A new map of Chechnya, indicating the territories that the republic should take over from Ingushetia under the border agreement, has been posted by the Chechen Parliament on its website, on the page "Map of the Chechen Republic" of the section "Chechen Republic", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Ingush oppositionists are ready to resume their rally, as well as to hold a protest action in Moscow, if the Russia's Constitutional Court (CC) finds the border agreement legal, activists told the "Caucasian Knot".

On November 9, a press conference was held at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) on problems in the sphere of land relations; activists associate the attack on Adam Medaliev and the arson of his car with these problems.

Kerim Gamidov, outraged by the words of the head of the Dagestani MIA about the non-involvement of MIA's agents in the murder of brothers Nabi and Gasangusein Gasanguseinov, held a picket at the State Duma building in Moscow.

Policemen detained a freelance journalist Ilkin Mamedli; his advocate has failed to figure out the reasons.

Today, in Gukovo, 60 people have come to the picket of miners held near the recreation centre of the "Rostovskaya" mine, reports Tatiana Avachyova, a member of the initiative group.

In Tbilisi, a Christmas tree to celebrate the New Year will be installed in the territory in front of the parliament building, where Zaza Saralidze, a father of a killed schoolboy, has been holding his protest action since September 10, the Mayoralty announces. Zaza Saralidze has called on the Mayoralty to cede a place and noted that the protesters will not interfere with preparations for the holiday.

During the week, in Djavakheti, five members of opposition parties were beaten with batons. All cases involve the name of MP Enzel Mkoyan, a member of the ruling "Georgian Dream" Party, but he himself has denied involvement in the incidents, the "JAMnews" reported on November 8.

On November 8, in Magas, residents of the Nazran District were injured in a shelling at an office of a construction company, and two of them were hospitalized, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports today.