News

On August 26, in Armenia, about 20 bikers organized a motocross race from Yerevan to Amulsar. They wanted to support activists who blocked the roads to the Amulsar gold field.

On August 25, during her visit to Baku, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met civil society activists. Participants of the meeting expressed different assessments for the Angela Merkel's visit from the point of view of the possible contribution to the protection of human rights. According to them, the German Chancellor demonstrated good knowledge of the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan. However, some of the activists have noted it is hardly worth waiting for a lot from the meeting.

In the Grozny District of Chechnya, employees of rural administrations and public institutions are regularly obliged to take participate in subbotniks (Saturday voluntary works), reported participants of the events themselves.

A Greek tanker with 17 Georgian citizens, which disappeared for two weeks from radar along the coast of Africa, has been found and returned to the port, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has informed.

The topic of the Sixth Youth Forum, which is attended by some 80 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, is social entrepreneurship.

A fighter from Dagestan Khabib Nurmagomedov and an Irishman Conor MacGregor, whose upcoming fight at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the USA caused a stir among fans, accused each other of cowardice. Adulmanap Nurmagomedov, the father and the coach of the Dagestani athlete, called his son a favourite of the fight.

During the week of August 19-25, units of the Azerbaijani Army made more than 2500 shots at positions of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), its Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported.

A resident of Kalmykia, accused of beating up Tabarik Dudaeva, a Chechen woman, was detained on suspicion of hooliganism based on ethnic hatred. What happened in Bolshoi Tsaryn is an isolated incident, members of the Chechen community in Kalmykia assert.

The first civil defence training exercises were held in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) for an air strike. Siren sounds reminded of the terrible times of the first Karabakh War, residents of Stepanakert have noted. However, some of them confessed that they did not even think of hiding into the shelter, saying that they feel quite confident under the defence of their army.

Germany supports the territorial integrity and European integration of Georgia, but it is too early to talk about the country's membership in the NATO, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her visit to Georgia. Georgian experts have assessed Ms Merkel's visit as a sign of support for the territorial integrity of Georgia.

70 people came to courthouse aiming to support Orkhan Bakhyshly, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), but they were not let to the courtroom, because the defendant has refused to testify.

The blogger Mekhman Guseinov was denied punishment mitigating and conditional early relief (CER) on the basis of negative characteristics received by the court from his colony. His defence treats the court's decision as unjustified and intends to appeal against it.

Ramzan Kadyrov's words about the ban on rights defenders from visiting Chechnya do not apply to all of them, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, has explained.

Today, Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny, has celebrated his 61 years old. He will celebrate his birthday not with his relatives and friends, but behind bars, being taken into custody on the charge of marijuana possession.

On August 23, in the centre of Moscow, a native of Kabardino-Balkaria attacked policemen without reasons and was shot dead.

The positions of the Azerbaijani army were shelled in three villages bordering with Armenia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reported.

The young people detained by law enforcers in the Shali District of Chechnya on August 22 are relatives or friends of the young men killed in the attack on law enforcers. This was stated by local residents.

Ramzan Kadyrov's order to enhance control over residents of the republic and the statements concerning the alleged guilt of the killed teenagers' parents were made against the backdrop of a discussion in social networks, where many residents of Chechnya called the killing of the minors an excessive use of force.

Subordinates of Ramzan Kadyrov have perceived his statements about rights defenders as a signal to actions, and that means journalists and rights defenders, disliked by Ramzan Kadyrov, are under threat even outside the republic. That was stated by rights defenders Igor Kalyapin and Svetlana Gannushkina.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has announced "sanctions" against human rights defenders, threatening to apply harsh measures to those of them who decide to visit the republic.