News

Ukraine and the United States have granted the refugee status to Mikhail Savva, a Professor of the Kuban State University (KSU) and Director of Grant Programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre (SRRC), convicted of a fraud. This was announced by Mr Savva himself.

The court has ruled to place Giya Mkheidze, a resident of Georgia, suspected of organizing pogroms at two polling stations – Nos. 79 and 108 in the village of Djikhashkari, – into pre-trial custody, the "Interfax" reports citing its source from the court.

In Krasnodar, a district police inspector is dismissed and comes under investigation. He is suspected of the fact that he has beaten a detainee, threatened him to falsify a criminal case against him, and tried to extort 500,000 roubles from him. When the policeman got no money from the detainee, he took the detainee's car. This has been reported today by the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

A boy, who was knocked out by a son of Ramzan Kadyrov during a performance fight in Grozny, was not injured, since the fight was staged and the winner was determined in advance. This was reported by the father of the defeated boy.

In Sochi, at the session of the Adler District Court in the case against builder Mardiros Demerchyan, accused of slander, the policemen and medical attendants have claimed that no torture was used against Mardiros Demerchyan and that he got no bodily harm. The defence of the accused builder has drawn the Court's attention to the fact that the testimonies given by the policemen contain a lot of contradictions.

In Sochi, Atsamaz Khadikov, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), held a picket with the demand to take actions against environmental pollution in Vladikavkaz by the "Electrozink" Factory.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has closed the criminal cases of abuse of power, which had been earlier filed against businessmen Magomed and Akhmed Bilalov. This was reported by the "Dozhd" (Rain) TV Channel with reference to its own sources.

At the trial in the "Nardaran case", witnesses have claimed that after the detention, they were subjected to pressure to testify against Talekh Bagirzade, the chairman of the movement "Muslim Unity", reports the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

After pre-processing of the final protocols received from the precinct election commissions (PECs), the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia has announced that the ruling party "Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia" has won 856,762 votes, which makes 48.65% of all the votes; the "United National Movement" (UNM) has won 477,596 votes – 27.14%; and the bloc "David Tarkhan-Mouravi, Irma Inashvili – Alliance of Georgian Patriots, United Opposition" – 88,109 votes – 5%.

The Joint International Election Observation Mission, whose members visited 200 polling stations for the election to the Parliament of Georgia on October 8, have stated the need to hold a re-run of elections in Zugdidi and Marneuli, casting doubt on the accuracy of vote tabulation there.

The Republic's Commission for Adaptation of Former Militants to Peaceful Life has decided to claim indulgence to a resident of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), who was detained in Nalchik after his arrival by air from Syria.

At least 300 violations were fixed by observers sent by NGOs to monitor the parliamentary elections in Georgia.

Within three days, the appeal to Russian President, demanding to clear out the conflict of Fyodor Emelianenko, the head of the Union of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) with the retinue of Ramzan Kadyrov about children's fights organized in Grozny gathered 90,610 signatures.

Possible accomplices of the three militants killed today in the Suleiman-Stalsky District of Dagestan are looked for in the vicinity of the village of Tsmur, the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) has reported today. According to law enforcers, the casualties were members of the "Southern" grouping of militants, said a law enforcement source.

The eight people, killed in Chechnya on October 9, were on the way to the Republic of Dagestan; their route was along country roads, to bypass stationary police posts, a source from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) told the "Caucasian Knot" today.

Parliamentary elections in Georgia; children MMA fights in Grozny that caused resonance; ten years after Anna Politkovskaya's murder, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of October 3-9, 2016, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

During the attack on the polling station in the village of Djikhashkari, Zugdidi District of Georgia, the attackers took away observers' telephones, and hit one female observer on the head, said Mina Skouen, a Norwegian rights defender and a member of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

In the evening on October 9, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced in the Suleiman-Stalsky District. At night on October 10, republic's law enforcement sources reported the killing of suspected militants in the CTO area.

During the week from October 3 to October 9, 2016, in the course of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus at least 22 people suffered, of whom 18 persons were killed and four others were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The eight militants killed today in Chechnya were members of one grouping and had planned sabotage and terror acts, said a source from the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).