News

The aim of the law adopted in the Stavropol Territory, which has increased up to 2500 hectares the minimum land area allocated to tenants, is to protect land of the territory from outside influence, said Vladimir Vladimirov, the Governor. His statement in defence of the scandalous law was made three days after it was appealed against by the Prosecutor's Office.

A native of Chechnya has been arrested in the province of Agri in Eastern Turkey and accused of having links with the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS) banned in Russia, said the spokesman of the Counterterrorist Department of the Security Office of the province.

The gas explosion in Grozny, which caused harm to a woman and five children, was caused by rendering services that failed to meet safety requirements, the investigators assert.

The President of Abkhazia Raul Khajimba has offered the oppositionists, who demanded his resignation, as a compromise, high government posts, including the posts of the Public Prosecutor General and Vice-Premier. He also agreed to limit his own powers.

At the trial of an attempt to create a caliphate in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) Valery Dimitrov was questioned, who was a witness of detention of two defendants in January 2014. He said that in 2011 he was convicted and was serving his conditional sentence. The defence believes that this fact puts the witness into dependence from power agents.

Workers of the "Nairit" Chemical Factory demand to resume the production of caoutchouc (rubber resin) in the country. The Armenian Ministry of Energy has stated that it had received no bids (applications) for participating in the tender for factory restart.

An efficient investigation into the killings of Dagestani journalists Khadjimurad Kamalov and Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev is hampered by investigators' sluggishness during the first days after the crimes; and because of that, it is now much more difficult to establish many facts, colleagues of the perished journalists state on December 15.

The popularity of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has brought him up to the federal level, but in 2016 his rating was based mainly on his hard-edged statements and positioning himself as a strong leader, said Alexei Grazhdankin and Stepan Goncharov, sociologists of the "Levada Centre".

Murders and disappearances of journalists, including in Northern Caucasus, remain uninvestigated for years. Casualties' colleagues and relatives must seek punishment of the perpetrators, mass media professionals have stated on the Commemoration Day of Perished Journalists.

Raul Khajimba, the President of Abkhazia, has admitted several oppositionists to himself in order to discuss the demands of the people's assembly to him to resign. After the talks, he announced that he would not resign.

On the day of the murder of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, the car of Shagid Gubashev was far from the crime scene, said his advocate, referring to the data of the "Potok" (Flow) system. However, the prosecutor has objected, saying that in autumn of 2014 Gubashev repeatedly appeared in the territory of the settlement, where Nemtsov was.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in February, the Company "Kurort Plus" became the purchaser of 96.9% of the Non-Public Joint-Stock Company (NPJSC) "Krasnaya Polyana". The amount of the transaction concluded by the "Sberbank" made 35 billion roubles. In December 2015 the Supervisory Board of the "Vnesheconombank" agreed on the sale of shares of the "Krasnaya Polyana" to the Company "Kurort Plus".

The refusal of militaries to go to Syria is the reason to break contracts with them, said the military experts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". The contract servicemen must fulfil out the orders of their commanders, said Alexander Khramchikhin.

During the New Year holidays, the girls, who study in Chechen schools, should be dressed in accordance with the requirements of the Vainakh ethics. Such instructions were received by a number of heads of educational establishment of the republic from their bosses.

At the trial of the "Nardaran case", the court refused to grant the defence's motions demanding to examine testimonies and summon witnesses for questioning, including Ramil Usubov, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). After that, the defendants expressed their protest against the judge's actions and refused to participate in the trial, which was then interrupted.

A local resident Murat Attoev, arrested on suspicion of aiding militants, has stated a violation of his rights by law enforcers of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR). The Attoev's case has signs of falsification, said Valery Khatazhukov, the head of the KBR's Human Rights Centre.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for Adygea has refused to open a criminal case on the fact of theft of animals donated by Ramzan Kadyrov to poor residents of Adygea. Ecologist Valery Brinikh, who voiced the information, also announced his intention to challenge the MIA's decision and complained to the Prosecutor's Office about pressure from law enforcers.

The "Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre" in Yekaterinburg is to be blown up in case of its "subversive activities." This was stated by Mufti Ismail Berdiev, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Karachay-Cherkessia. Journalist Orkhan Djemal and Akhmet Yarlykapov, an expert on the Caucasus, believe the statement voiced by the Mufti is "reckless."

At the background of poor quality of republic's investment projects and misuse of allocated funds, the Russian party has tightened the terms of granting financial aid to Abkhazia, said Abkhazian journalists Izida Chaniya and Anton Krivenyuk.

Today, the Moscow District Military Court has announced the indictment on the case against Aslan Baisultanov, a native of Chechnya, and two members of his grouping, accused of preparing an explosion in Moscow. All the three have partially admitted their guilt.