News

The members of 15 foreign delegations, who monitored the constitutional referendum, have handed their conclusions about the absence of violations over to the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). In their view, the referendum can be considered valid.

The Krasnodar Territorial Court (KTC) has rejected the appeal complaint lodged by the activist Darya Polyudova, who asked to replace her remaining term in the colony-settlement for a more lenient punishment.

Mass arrests aim at reducing social protests in the society against the appointment of Mekhriban Alieva to the post of the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, oppositionists believe.

In the course of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in the village of Andi, law enforcers found ammunition bunkers, said the head of the Botlikh ROVD (District Interior Division).

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found a violation of the rights of relatives of Ibragim Kushtov, who disappeared in Ingushetia in 2006. Relatives hope to find out his fate and bury him, if he is dead.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Abkhazia has completed the reception of documents from the initiative groups and political parties, willing to nominate candidates for the elections to the National Assembly – the Parliament.

The Creative Association "Portal", established in place of the frozen construction site of the National Museum of North Ossetia, is under threat of closure, said the organizers of the project. The head of the republic Vyacheslav Bitarov offered to leave the "Portal" at the already popular site of the museum, or to give it another premise.

The complaints of Temur Kobaliya, the former head of the "Youth Consulting and Training Centre", about his administrative harassment in connection with the law on "Foreign Agents", was taken on February 20 to consideration by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The authors of the project "House with windows into happiness" managed to raise nearly 1.5 million roubles to build a house for a large Djandigov family. Most of the funds – 950,000 roubles – were raised by means of crowdfunding, which was praised by the "Solidarity" Charity Fund as highly efficient.

Activists of the oppositional "National Revival" Party claim that the leaflets of the opponents of the new Constitution draft of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) were torn away en masse; and during the election campaign, the authorities made use of their administrative resources.

For the second day in a row, residents of central Derbent are holding protests with a demand not to resettle them into new buildings. Townspeople have threatened to block the federal highway and the railway. The Chairman of the City Assembly has urged them to wait for the outcomes of the Mayor’s meeting with the republic’s Premier.

Eight journalists of the paper have been summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan for interrogation within the case initiated against Faig Amirov, the Chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the "Azadlyg" reports.

According to the power agency of the Iraqi Kurds, as a result of the military operation in Mosul, over 30 militants of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization banned in Russia, were killed including Abu Bakr al-Shishani, a native of Chechnya.

A senior Ingush policeman, arrested on suspicion of abusing a detainee, has threatened members of the Public Oversight Commission (POC). Magomed Mutsolgov, the head of the human rights organization "Mashr", has appealed to the investigating authorities with a request to investigate the incident.

Sending militaries from Ingushetia to Syria; mass detention of Azerbaijani migrants in Derbent and visit of Russia's CEC head to Makhachkala; a major fire in Krasnodar multi-storey building; removal of erotic movie "Fifty Shades Darker" from screening in Vladikavkaz; nomination of lists of candidates by political forces in Armenia for the upcoming parliamentary elections, – see a review of major events in the Caucasus on February 13-19, 2017, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

During the week from February 13 to February 19, 2017, no victims were reported of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

On February 19, Sochi court marshal Andrei Zorinovsky, warned Tatiana Dyakova and Fyodor Dyakov, parents of three minor children, of eviction of their family members from the apartment until February 28. Meanwhile, the court marshal has ignored the claim of the Dyakov spouses that the family includes an infant and a child with disabilities.

Georgy Mamaladze, suspected of an assassination attempt on Ilia II, had no ambitions to claim for the patriarchal throne. This opinion was voiced by Georgian theologians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". They treat the investigators' version as doubtful.

In his motion on pardon to President Ilham Aliev, journalist Arshad Ibragimov has noted that he has already served half of his sentence at a penal colony and that he was an internally displaced person (IDP) from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Law enforcers tortured Ruslan Tagibekov, a native of Dagestan, suspected of illicit trafficking in weapons. This was claimed by his defence. On February 18, Ruslan Tagibekov was formally charged.