News

Fifteen years after hostage-taking in Beslan school; outcomes of presidential election in Abkhazia; increased tension on Georgian-South-Ossetia border – read about these and other events in the Caucasus that happened from August 26 to September 1, 2019, in the weekly review prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Now, the list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan includes 117 persons, including one human rights defender, six journalists and 55 believers, the "Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" (UFPPA) has informed.

The authorities' desire to heroize the law enforcers who had stormed the school is unacceptable, Ella Kesaeva, the head of the "Voice of Beslan" Committee, is convinced.

Elvin Isaev, 39, a video blogger who criticized Azerbaijani authorities, has been stripped of Russian citizenship and will be deported from the country, a court in Saint Petersburg has ruled. His wife has urged Russian President Putin to interfere in the case.

At his meeting with the head of Chechnya, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, disagreed with Ramzan Kadyrov's words that the new "Muslims' Pride" Mosque is the most beautiful in the world. Kadyrov did not argue.

The work of searching for the remains of the people who disappeared during the military campaigns in Chechnya is too slow, local residents said on the occasion of the Day of Missing People. Methods for identifying the remains are being improved, but there is no progress in investigating the deaths of these people and similar crimes in other regions of Northern Caucasus, human rights defenders have stated.

A native of Chechnya, detained after a mass brawl with gunfire in Krasnodar, has complained to the territorial ombudsman about beatings and tortured with electric shock during detention. As stated by Ruslan Kutaev, the head of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nastions", an office has been set up to any further torture of the detainees within this case.

A young man filmed Dagestani girls to the camera with angry comments about their wrong behaviour and blackmailed them by promising to post videos on the Internet, claiming money. Some social network users have supported the guy who "had been engaged in moral upbringing," while others condemned him.

The head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has ordered to name the Grozny Suvorov School after the first president of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov. This was done in agreement with Ramzan Kadyrov, the incumbent head of the republic, said the school commander.

Instagram users have condemned the act of Gadjimurad Isabekov, a resident of Makhachkala, who had first invited Ramzan Kadyrov to a duel and then apologized to him.

There were fewer believers at the Friday prayer in the Moscow mosque after a raid with detentions undertaken by law enforcers, who detained also natives from Northern Caucasus. Many parishioners decided not to complain about the raid for security reasons.

In its turn, South Ossetia will continue striving for fulfilment of its demand to liquidate the checkpoint, the presidential plenipotentiary for post-conflict settlement has assured.

Medical examination has confirmed the grave condition of the journalist, Ikram Ragimov, his cousin Galib Gasanov said.

The alleged killer of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a native of the Pankisi Gorge, arrived in Germany by the passport to the name of Vadim Sokolov, a resident of Saint Petersburg, but there is no such person in the databases, the authors of an international journalistic investigation have stated.

Today, on August 30, at least 50 law enforcers were engaged in stopping drivers who have visited their Friday namaz (prayer) in "Tangim" mosque in Makhachkala. The drivers' data were copied, Idris Yusupov, a journalist, has informed.

The capacity of the "Pride of Muslims" Mosque in Shali twice exceeds the size of the local population, and that fact does not bring any economic benefits for the city, blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov notes. The Chechen authorities need such construction projects to show their power, journalist Maxim Shevchenko believes.

On August 29, a group of climbers set flags at the peak of the highest mountain in Chechnya and offered to name it after Akhmat Kadyrov. The initiative continued the tendency to "Akhmatize" Chechnya, residents of the republic noted.

A brutal murder of two women from a Chechen village, in which a 17-year-old female relative of the murdered persons is suspected, is a result of insufficient education in the family, users of social networks suggest. The incident is not typical for the Chechen society, some users note.

Today, in Baku, the court has dismissed the appeal filed against the arrest of activist Sakhladar Iskenderli, detained after a picket, and left him in custody, the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) reports.

On August 29, Ramzan Kadyrov threatened to "bring to responsibility under the law" not only his opponents on social networks, but also those who disseminated their criticism of the Chechen authorities. Meanwhile, the leader of the republic called on people not to respond to messages posted on social networks.