News

Today, three persons received traumas at an explosion in the railway tunnel that is being built in the Kharagauli District of Georgia. Labour safety rules are often violated at the construction site, the railwaymen's trade union has stated.

On January 21, on the TV air, Aminat Avturkhanova, who was looking for her husband, included in the list of the people executed in Chechnya a year ago, denied the information that she had been detained by law enforcers. The woman was forced to voice such a statement, local residents suggest.

Arrest of Makhachkala Mayor; fire in the Nazran office of the HRC "Memorial"; large-scale opposition rally in Yerevan against rising prices; pickets of Gukovo miners demanding to give them coal; hunger strike of deceived real estate investors in Krasnodar, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 15-21, 2018, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In its annual report on the protection of human rights in the world, the "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) reports that the Azerbaijani authorities have enhanced the suppression of its critics. Azerbaijani rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe it is time for the United States, the European Union and international organizations to move from statements to concrete actions.

During the week of January 15-21, 2018, 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.

The Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor's Office (MPO) is investigating the death of soldier Ragim Aliev.

On January 21, in Boston, Islam Makhachev, a Dagestani mixed-martial arts (MMA) fighter, defeated a Brazilian Gleason Tibau at the UFC-220 tournament in Boston.

Pupils of a number of schools in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) are forced to write applications about the transfer of teaching national languages to the voluntary basis. If the society fails to resist the authorities, national languages will be lost, a historian Aslanbek Mirzoev has stated.

The armoured personnel carriers (APCs) delivered by Russia will strengthen the combat capacities of Azerbaijani armed forces in the Karabakh conflict zone, the Baku experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, believe.

The court has arrested a suspect in the case of a shootout in Volgograd, who is now at hospital. According to investigators, he was the conflict instigator.

On January 18, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found rights violation of Mushvig Guseinov, a correspondent of the "Bizim Yol" newspaper under Articles 5.3 (right to liberty and personal security) and 6.2 (right to fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and obliged the Azeri authorities to pay him 4000 euros of compensation.

In Astrakhan, policemen have released Alexei Navalny's supporters after drawing up a confiscation protocol of leaflets, Alexander Kogut, the head of the local Navalny's office, has stated.

In spite of cold weather and strong wind, residents of Baku have come today to the Alley of Martyrs to commemorate those who perished as a result of the invasion of Soviet troops to Baku on January 20, 1990.

Policemen have detained three employees of the Astrakhan Navalny's office, who were disseminating leaflets in the city centre.

Musa Musaev, the Makhachkala Mayor, did not exceed his powers at allocating the land plot; the case against him was instituted without due grounds, said Suleiman Azuev, his advocate.

Modern Russian military vehicles and ammunition are delivered to the Baku port and will be transferred to the armed forces in the Karabakh conflict zone, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijani reports.

Alexander Valov, the editor-in-chief of the website "BlogSochi", was detained by the police for 48 hours after a search conducted in his apartment.

The traditional annual march in memory of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, held in Moscow, attracted more participants than the organizers had expected. The posters that people carried included those demanding to stop repressing rights defenders, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

According to Moscow law enforcers, the today's march in memory of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta", was over 500 people strong.

Today, Yerevan has hosted an action against price hike, which turned into a march across the city centre. According to the organizer, the opposition "Elk" bloc, several thousand people took part in the march.