News

The working group of Azerbaijani human rights defenders, NGO activists and lawyers has released an updated list of political prisoners including 112 names. Cases of other 11 prisoners remain under the working group's monitoring.

Relatives of Azamat Ibragimov, who disappeared for two weeks during his trip to Chechnya, have met him in Montreal.

Russian authorities fail to investigating the torture of Maxim Lapunov in Chechnya, but the communication of his complaint by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should launch this process, the advocate has stated. Human rights defenders continue evacuating gays from Chechnya, the Russian LGBT Network has informed.

Tbilisi protesters have held a mass march along Rustaveli Avenue and gathered in the square near the parliament building. They demand early parliamentary elections under the proportional election system.

Many residents of Dagestan express their support for the arrested journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev, but only a few people are holding solo pickets demanding his release. People are afraid of becoming figurants of a trumped-up case after Gadjiev, Magdi Kamalov, the founder of the "Chernovik" weekly, has stated.

Asif Yusifli, Member of the Presidium of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), has been released after five years in prison. He insists that he had fallen victim to political persecution.

In his dispute with the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, Chingiz Akhmadov, Director of the "Chechnya Today" News Agency, has unconvincingly justified the authorities' position and uses personal insults, social network users have noted. Some YouTube users have supported the blogger in his dispute with Chechen authorities about the reasons of unemployment in the republic.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has communicated the complaint of Maxim Lapunov about torture in Chechnya caused by his sexual orientation. The Russian authorities should submit their position to the ECtHR by March 12, 2020. The complaint filed in May this year was accepted to consideration within record time.

A Moscow court has ordered Yan Rachinsky to pay a second fine, which was imposed on him after the check conducted by the Ingush FSB Branch. The total fines imposed on the "Memorial" by the outcomes of that check amounted to 1.5 million roubles.

"Educational conversations" are unlikely to help; such people [alcohol addicts] need to be treated, users have noted in their comments on another video clip showing a Chechen policeman reproaching the detainees for using psychotropic drugs and appearing drunk in public places.

At the request of the White House official, for fear of worsening US-Turkish relations, Senator Lindsay Graham blocked the Senate vote on the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

During the week of November 18-24, 2019, no casualties or victims were fixed in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from open sources.

Power dispersal of demonstrators in Tbilisi; termination of the protest action held by a father of the shepherds killed in Dagestan; story with the involvement of a Stavropol law enforcer in the murder of a Syrian man; release from SIZO of Ingush journalist Rashid Maisigov; arrest of former Elista Mayor Vyacheslav Namruev, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of November 18-24, 2019, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Participants in a roundtable in Vladikavkaz have discussed the problem of domestic violence in the republic, recalling the murder of Regina Gagieva. According to their stories, the police often neglects victims' complaints; and there is no one to help them among relatives.

In its report on Ramzan Kadyrov's visit to the UAE, the Chechen television has made an excessive emphasis on the respect of Arab Sheikhs to the head of Chechnya, residents of the republic have stated.

Residents of Chechnya were outraged by the report on "loafers" shown by the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company) amid economic strangulation of the population, the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, has stated.

The devaluation of the Georgian currency has led to inflation and rising prices in the country. Foodstuffs have become very expensive; people have to save and borrow money, residents of Georgia have stated. To strengthen the lari, the country needs political stabilization, economists and political analysts believe.

In the course of the investigation of the murder of Regina Gagieva, a resident of Vladikavkaz, seven investigators have already replaced each other, Roksana Gagieva, Regina's sister, has stated.

The complaint of the lawyer of the Committee against Torture (CaT) Abubakar Yangulbaev has confirmed; the former police boss of the Shamil District will be brought to disciplinary responsibility, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan has reported. Yangulbaev, who is representing the interests of the parents of the murdered Gasanguseinov brothers, believes that the policeman should be fired.

Since November 17, Azerbaijani soldiers fired more than 1300 shots at positions of the Defence Army, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) reported on November 23.