News

A Hafiz School (where they train reciters of the Koran by heart) was opened in the mountain village of Pachu in the Nozhai-Yurt District of Chechnya, becoming the sixth such school opened in the republic during the last 8 years.

This year, the month of Ur Sar, sacred for all Buddhists, will last in Kalmykia from May 16 to June 13. During this period, believers traditionally refuse consuming meat and alcohol. The main festive events are scheduled for May 29, when the Buddhists of the world will celebrate the birthday, enlightenment and departure of Buddha Shakyamuni to the parinirvana.

Today, the leadership of Ingushetia have seen off to Syria the third group of servicemen of the military police battalion from the 19th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Southern Military District.

A resident of Dagestan tried to go abroad to participate in armed hostilities, but was detained by border guards and brought to trial.

Samed Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), is among the four members of the Assembly, whose powers are limited by the results of the corruption investigation conducted with the PACE.

Today, OSCE observers have conducted monitoring of the troops contact line and fixed no violations of the ceasefire, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan have stated.

Telegram was used in Russia as a new media tool for publishing free and independent information, and the decision to block it can only be seen as a violation of people's freedom to express their opinion, human rights activists said today.

In Georgia, the mood of youth was influenced by the change of power in Armenia as a result of street actions, but the resumption of protests in Tbilisi will not lead to serious political changes. This opinion was voiced by political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

NATO warships, which arrived in the port of Georgia for exercises, do not threaten Russia. A training group mainly consists of warships of the Black Sea countries, which do not carry powerful weapons, military experts note.

At a roundtable held on May 15 at the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre, tenants of a dormitory located in 10 in Ashurov Street in Nalchik complained about the difficult living conditions, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Aisha Efendieva, a native of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), who awaits trial in Iraq, has written a letter to her relatives and described inhuman conditions of detention and abuse. The woman asks her relatives to return her with her children home from captivity.

The Investigating Department for Kabardino-Balkaria of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has taken control over the investigation into a complaint of torture used by law enforcers against Rustam Kuchmenov, a resident of Nalchik, the Committee Against Torture reports.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made a harsh comment on the statement voiced by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov about the responsibility of Paris for an attack on passers-by committed by Chechen native Khamzat Azimov.

Today, Nikol Pashinyan, the new Prime Minister of Armenia, has signed decrees on the dismissal of the chief court superintendent, the head of the department for state property management, three deputy ministers and the chief secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov treats a letter, in which cultural figures, journalists and religious figures asked President Vladimir Putin "to put an end to the persecution of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) 'Memorial'."

In Dagestan, according to the decision of the Council of Alims of the republic, the fasting in honour of the holy month of Ramadan will begin on May 17. In that matter, the Muftiate of Dagestan disagrees with the Council of Muftis for Russia, which declared the holy month of Ramadan to be started on May 16.

A marathon has been held in Baku. All the funds raised during it will be directed to support children deprived of parental care. The marathon has become a PR-action for the authorities and measures to support social orphans should not be advertised, believes Natiq Jafarli, a member of the Mejlis of the "Republican Initiative" Party.

At the Eurasian Economic Union summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Nikol Pashinyan, who became the Prime Minister of Armenia after large-scale protests.

In Chechnya, the distribution of gifts at the grand opening of the city centre has ended in conflicts among children. Residents complained about the bad organization of the action.

The law on the voluntary study of national languages at schools will lead to the disappearance of the nations inhabiting the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) and the republic itself, and may trigger conflicts. This was stated by Madina Khakuasheva, a philologist, and Valery Khatazhukov, human rights defender.