News

A Moscow court has fined Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Civil Assistance Committee, who was detained at a rally with a demand to release Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", by 10,000 roubles.

Murad Soltanov, an Azerbaijani resident, was beaten with sticks to death in an attempt to "drive out ghosts," investigators have suggested.

The participants in the opening ceremony of the mosque in the village of Khaibakh, which was attended by residents of the Galanchozh District, recalled the tragic events of 1944 and honoured the memory of hundreds of people who were burned down in the village during deportation.

Within the last 24 hours, the positions of the Azerbaijani militaries stationed in the Karabakh conflict zone were fired for 24 times, including from heavy machine guns, the country's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated.

After the shootout near the village of Martan-Chu, where two residents of Urus-Martan were shot dead, law enforcers detained men-members of their families, local residents said.

Users of social networks found doubts the law enforcers' version that the two men shot dead in the Urus-Martan District had been involved in the armed underground. The hunting rifle that the casualties had on them is not a typical terrorists' weapon; and the young people could just go hunting, many commentators have suggested. They indicate that the guys should have been detained and returned to normal life.

Yan Sidorov, Vladislav Mordasov and Vyacheslav Shashmin, accused of attempting to take part in mass riots, are prisoners of conscience and should be immediately released, the human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has stated.

In 2018, the shootout in the Urus-Martan District, during which law enforcers killed two people, was preceded by nine armed incidents in other district sof Chechnya.

The human rights defenders, who worked in Chechnya, received threats from high-ranking law enforcers and personally by Ramzan Kadyrov, but Oyub Titiev continued working in the republic, realizing the danger. This was stated at the trial by Dmitry Utukin and Sergey Babinets, members of the Joint Mobile Group (JMS).

Today, journalist Sulieta Kusova has died. She was 67 years old. Sulieta Kusova was preparing to undergo a surgery, but she rescheduled it to take part in the "Kunaki" Film Festival last week, reported Ali Kamalov, the chairman of the Dagestani Union of Journalists.

Journalist Ilkin Mamedli, detained in Baku after his address for a foreign passport, was released two days later without any charge, reported rights defender Samira Agaeva. According to her, the issue of lifting the ban on leaving Azerbaijan from Ilkin Mamedli remains open.

The government of Ingushetia has announced launching the improvement works at the border village of Dattykh. The authorities made a decision to revive the Dattykh village, noted the Ingush Prime Minister during his visit to the village amid public confrontation provoked by the change in the border with Chechnya.

During the week of November 5-11, 2018, at least two persons were killed in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. No wounded were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

In Ingushetia, unidentified people in masks kidnapped Rustam Lyanov, a nephew of Ibragim Lyanov, the head of the European Ingush Association in Brussels, reported activists. Ibragim Lyanov associated the incident with his activities.

Detention of the acting head of Makhachkala; aggravation of the land conflict in the Nartan village in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic; actions in Southern Russia for the anniversary of the October Revolution; confrontation between the police and supporters of Zaza Saralidze on protest in Tbilisi; "Kunaki" Film Festival in Dagestan; recognition of a large Volgograd enterprise as bankrupt, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of November 5-11, 2018, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The new map of the region posted on the website of the Chechen Parliament has been updated after the critical article of the edition named "Novoe Delo" (New Case), which pointed out a mismatch with the cadastral data on the border with Dagestan, a part of which was ascribed to Chechnya.

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.