News

One of the main events of 2016 in Armenia was the four-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which revealed gaps in Armenia's policy and the country's security, believes Ruben Megrabyan, a political scientist and an expert of the Centre for Political and International Studies.

On January 5, Sochi hosted the opening ceremony of the first casino of the new gambling zone "Krasnaya Polyana"; however, the casino is working in test mode since December 24. Officials of the gambling facility and Sochi authorities have announced their ambitious plans related to the development of the gambling zone; while first visitors noted the high price to be paid for participating in gambling, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The Muslims of the Salafi mosque in the village of Duisi have treated the arson of the Culture House as a provocation against them. Duisi Muslims have nothing to do with the arson, Mamuka Areshidze, the Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies of the Caucasus, believes.

In the course of interrogation, Ruslan Djamaldinov confessed of killing the journalist Amerkhan (Amir) Kokurkhoev, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ingushetia.

The state prosecutor has asked the court to sentence Elgiz Gakhramanov, a member of the "Nida" (Outcry) movement, accused of drug dealing, to six years in prison.

Investigators have identified one of the attackers on the athlete Rasul Mirzaev as Kamil Allakhverdiev, a native of Dagestan, said Yulia Ivanova, the spokesperson of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

Rufat Safarov, a former investigator, convicted on charges of bribe-taking, told his father that a recidivist was placed into his cell at the Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison), who tries to provoke a conflict with him.

In a garage located in one of residential areas of Stavropol, a group of young people opened automatic fire with light-stun rounds in celebration of the New Year, the "Rosgvardia" (Russian Guards) Administration for the StavropolTerritory has reported.

Local experts believe that a series of events that took place in 2016 "knocked down" the rating of the Dagestani leader and the rating of his team.

Until the end of 2020, the World Bank will allocate more than 15 million US dollars for improvement of the living conditions of 371,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Azerbaijan.

According to lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", remains of victims of the Chechen war of 1994-1996 were given out to relatives after the expiry of criminal liability for persons involved in their deaths and proved the ineffectiveness of the investigation.

Mark Yavorsky, sentenced in Sochi for the murder of two men, has claimed that the real killers are at large, while he is just a witness of the conflict which occurred in a building of the abandoned sanatorium "Moscow". The defence filed an appeal, and the case transferred to the Krasnodar Regional Court.

The health condition of wrestler Rasul Mirzaev, who was attacked in Moscow at night of January 31, has deteriorated. This was reported by Aniuar Chechenov, a friend of the athlete.

The 17-year-old compatriot from Syria, who arrived in Adygea in late 2016, was accommodated into a repatriates' family and registered at a school, where he will learn the Russian language.

Among the forty people detained in the city of Izmir there are natives of Dagestan; they are suspected of involvement in the preparation of the attack on the nightclub in Istanbul, Turkish mass media have reported today.

The "Kakheti Regional Development Foundation", which is located in the Culture House, set on fire in the village of Duisi, had received threats in the Chechen and Georgian languages. Authors thereof expressed dissatisfaction with the education of women and children, said Iza Bekauri, the head of the Foundation.

The parliamentary elections were, of course, the most important event in 2016 in Georgia, Gela Vasadze, a political analyst and the chairman of the NGO "Free Zone", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. However, in his opinion, the election process itself has not changed in recent years.

After a retrial of Levan Kochlashvili, a resident of Tbilisi, accused of murdering a transgender person in 2014, the Supreme Court (SC) of Georgia sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment, General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Georgia reported on January 3.

In her special New Year's video message, Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the United Nations, has called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release from prison Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the Azerbaijani motion "ReAl".

Relatives of the young people killed on December 17-18 in Grozny and involved in attacks on policemen are dismissed from their jobs, and some of them are not paid pension and benefits. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by the people themselves.