News

On May 23, the North-Caucasian District Military Court continued the debate in the case of Caliphate, which, according to investigators, 10 residents of the republic wanted to establish in Kabardino-Balkaria. This was reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent who attended the court hearing.

A decision to close a mosque can only be made by a court. This opinion was expressed by Dagestani lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", who recognized as illegal the actions of law enforcers against the Shamkhal mosque closed at the request of the law enforcement agencies.

In Dagestan, the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan will be started on May 27. The appropriate decision was made at a meeting of the Council of Dagestani Alims. According to the Muftiate, the decision is not final, and theologians will follow the appearance of the moon.

On May 23, Sergey Mashevets, Judge of the Adler District Court, who on April 17, 2015 pronounced the decision to evict the Saveliev family from a cottage for Olympic settlers in the village of Veseloye Psou, refused to explain at their request his decision on mentioning the need to solve the housing problem of the evicted family, reports Lyudmila Savelieva.

Muslim Baitaziev, the finalist of the TV project "The Team", earlier appointed by Ramzan Kadyrov as the head of his secretariat, was appointed the deputy chairman of the Chechen government.

A low level of tolerance towards members of sexual minorities is not accompanied by a policy of their persecution at the state level. This opinion was expressed by experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

At a press conference held on May 23, members of the Free Speech Association (FSA) presented a report on the situation with freedom of speech and freedom of creativity in Russia in 2016-2017. The FSA members described repressions in Northern Caucasus regions as the most severe ones, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

On May 23, Maxim Schastlivy was detained by law enforcers. He has been charged with disobeying a lawful request to police officers. The court sentenced the activist to 10 days of arrest.

In the course of the search that lasted for three hours, power agents took away records from the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras, Nigmatulla Radjabov, the Imam of the Makhachkala mosque, located in Hungarian Warriors Street, told the "Caucasian Knot". They explained their actions by checking the information about a bomb allegedly planted at School No. 15, the Imam has added.

Azerbaijan has announced its intention to nominate for hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2028. Madrid will be Baku's main rival.

Shagen Arutyunyan, who was sentenced to four years of conditional imprisonment in the case of "Million Mask March" in Yerevan, reported that he was sent to a psychiatric clinic for examination and treated it as pressure on him.

Today, policemen came to the "Tangyim" mosque to check a message about the bomb allegedly planted at School No. 15, located in the same General Omarov Street, said parishioners. Officially, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) did not confirm the information about the check in the mosque.

Miners of the "Kingcoal" Company have refuted the authorities' information that they had almost completely received their salary debts; they think about a new hunger strike.

Residents of the Volgograd Region are charged with kidnapping a child. Besides, a local woman is also accused of the death of her adopted son by negligence. This was reported by Natalia Kunitskaya, the spokesperson for the Investigating Department for the Volgograd Region of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

Today, participants of a "tractor march" have organized a picket in Krasnodar where Vladimir Putin arrived. Sergey Plyonkin, one of the activists, was detained after he unfolded a poster in the street when the presidential motorcade was passing by.

On May 22, the Islamic Cultural Centre was opened in Sochi. The City Mayor's Office has announced the expansion of opportunities for prayer for 10,000 local Muslims. The Mufti for Adygea and Kuban has called opening of such centres a guarantee of tranquillity in the region.

On May 22, Moscow launched meetings of the roundtable on the topic "Problems and best practices for counteracting the radicalization of young people in Northern Caucasus". The event was organized by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" with the expert support of the International Crisis Group (ICC).

The police have detained members of the "Association of Russian Carriers" (known as OPR), who came to Khimki from various regions, including Dagestan, to hold an action against the "Platon" system. Three detainees are sentenced to fines, and the rest are awaiting a trial.

In the Gali District of Abkhazia, a German citizen was detained for illegal crossing the border with Georgia. He explained that he was engaged in hiking, and was not aware that he had crossed the border, informs the Abkhazian branch of the Frontier Department of the Russian FSB.

After the change of leadership of the local police department, first a police on duty post was set up near the Salafi mosque, located in the Shamkhal neighbourhood of the Kirov District of Makhachkala; and then it was completely closed without clear grounds, said the employees and parishioners of the mosque, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".