News

Despite the dissatisfaction of Sochi residents with coercion to participate in the presidential election, no official complaints were filed by voters, the opposition reports.

In the evening on March 18, in Grozny, about 70,000 people came for a rally dedicated to the anniversary of the Crimea's entry into Russia, the Chechen authorities reported. Teachers and students claimed being obliged to take part in the rally.

Russian presidential election in South of Russia amid violation reports; nomination of eight candidates for Azerbaijani presidency; tourists injured at cableway failure in Georgia; conviction of Dagestan woman-returnee from Syria; protests of deceived housing investors in Gelendjik and Rostov-on-Don; military exercises in Azerbaijan and NKR – read about these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of March 12-18, 2018, in the review prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) have filed "dozens of complaints" following the results of the voting at the presidential election. On March 20, the Communists plan to hold a sanctioned picket against falsifications of the election outcome.

Marat Ismailov, an observer from the "Yabloko" Party, registered three facts of ballot stuffing (throw-in) at a polling station in Kaspiysk. According to him, when he tried to stop a ballot stuffing, unidentified people wanted to take him outside, but the police intervened. The final protocol was also drawn up with violations, Marat Ismailov also noted.

Anton Prikhodko, a member of the precinct election commission (PEC), who represented the interests of presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak in Rostov-on-Don, was detained after he filmed the vote counting process. This was reported by the presidential candidate's office.

During the week of March 12-18, 2018, no victims to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were registered. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Presidential elections in Dagestan were accompanied with religious rites. This proves the desire of some residents of the republic to achieve 'sacred unity' with the authorities, sociologist Denis Sokolov said.

By 6:00 pm in Ingushetia, 156,391 voters participated in the presidential elections in Russia, no violations were recorded, the republican election commission reported.

The activity of voters was "unprecedented," "such high interest in the Russian elections in Armenia has not been observed yet."

People say that they took photos of their ballot papers and sent them to their bosses via WhatsApp to show who they voted for.

Observers complained of a ban on walking around the site. They told that the representatives of the electoral committee and two young men in sports suits demanded them to "sit still" in their places.

In the election of deputies of the State Duma of Russia in 2016 in Chechnya, the highest voter turnout in Russia was 94.92%.

Some voters admitted that they were not familiar with the candidates' programs and made the choice intuitively, judging by the candidates' appearance.

The Kotaik Regional Court of Armenia has released Avetis Avetisyan, a participant of the "Million Mask March", convicted to five years in prison, from the courtroom, having satisfied the application for the conditional early relief (CER).

Ruslan Mutsolgov, the head of the election office of the "Yabloko" Party, said that his home was visited by employees of the Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE) and invited his brother, Magomed Mutsolgov, to a "prophylactic conversation".

Large-scale quality checks of beef, mutton and chicken meat sold in Chechen marketplaces were launched after the statement of the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, about the need to combat genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs. The inspectors' actions caused sellers' discontent.

In the Stavropol Territory, law enforcers detained Minatulla Omarov who participated in protests against the ban on wearing hijabs by schoolgirls.

The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) has upheld the decision to arrest six activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) detained before a rally held on March 10 against the early presidential election.

On March 15, about 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Chechnya gathered in a private house in Nazran. They reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent their problems with the extension of refugee status. The IDPs also recorded a video message to the authorities of the country.