News

Power agents of Cherkessk subjected to hours-long interrogation and beat up a 53-year-old Jehovah's Witness Vladimir Mirzoyan, said Ivan Belenko, the spokesman of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Believers associate this situation with the conflict around the land plot, on which their liturgical building is built.

About 300 units of missile and artillery weapons are involved in the exercise, which started on military ranges in Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan and North Ossetia, and on a military base in South Ossetia, said the press service of the Southern Military District (SMD).

Members of the public Human Rights Centre (HRC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) decided to close their organization because of the "refusal of the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to remove the all-Russian movement 'For Human Rights' from the register of foreign agents."

Yerevan activists, who are protesting against the increase of the electricity tariff, have announced a new series of rallies and marches. Today, they intend to organize a protest action at the president's residence.

On July 14, in the city of Urus-Martan, a rally against terrorism and extremism under the motto "We are united and steadfast" was attended by more than a thousand people, said the city authorities. However, residents of Urus-Martan note that the rally, organized by city authorities, was attended mainly by employees of budget-funded organizations; and the event was formal.

The persons killed on July 14 in a special operation in the Baksan District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) have been identified as local residents.

The court has sentenced a resident of the Tsuntin District of Dagestan to six years of imprisonment for involvement in an illegal armed formation (IAF).

Because of the financial crisis in Greece, money transfers to Georgia have dropped by 15-16 million US dollars. Many migrants, who had left for Greece to earn money, have their revenues reduced, and now think about return to Georgia.

The international organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) has urged the authorities of Armenia to punish those responsible for the use of force to disperse demonstrators in Bagramyan Avenue in Yerevan on June 23. Rights defenders have called the police to conduct a transparent investigation into the incident.

Protesters in Yerevan have handed over an application to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), demanding to punish the policemen, who used force at dispersal of the demonstration on June 23.

The minimum amount of the religious tax Zakat-ul-Fitr (poor-due), which should be paid to needy Muslims before the holiday of Eid al-Adha, was defined by religious leaders of Southern Russia. The highest Zakat of 380 roubles was fixed for parishioners of Salafi mosques of Dagestan.

As stated by Musa Tairov's relatives, power agents prevented his discharge from a hospital in Krasnodar, where he was taken from a police station. On July 15, Tairov's questioning as a witness is scheduled, said his advocate.

The jury has found Ilya Goryachev, the supposed organizer of the "Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists" (known as BORN), guilty on all indictment points. The defendant deserves no leniency, said the jurymen.

The North-Caucasian District Military Court has sentenced six defendants in the case of the terror act committed in front of the GIBDD (traffic police) building in Pyatigorsk in 2013. The defendants have been sentenced to terms ranging from 17 years to life imprisonment.

As stated by Alexander Savenkov, the head of the Investigating Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia, the service check found no confirmation of the complaints about the police's inaction during the pogrom of the Grozny office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG).

The three persons killed in a special operation in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) were members of the illegal armed formation (IAF), responsible for numerous murders committed in the KBR and the Stavropol Territory, said the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia.

The case of the massacre Gyumri has not been delivered to Armenia yet. According to the Armenian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), the timing for the transfer has not been defined; however, the trial will be held in Armenia.

The defence of Rustam Gabibov, a resident of Dagestan, accused of a murder, has filed a complaint about non-provision of adequate medical care to him at SIZO-1 (pre-trial prison) of Nalchik, said the advocate Sapiyat Magomedova.

The protest actions against the increase of electricity tariff, as well as the massacre of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, have not quarrelled Armenia with Russia, despite the presence of the Russian factor on both of them. This opinion was expressed by Armenian political analysts, who believe that the reason is in the absence of anti-Russian sentiments in Armenia.

In the Baksan District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), the power agents discovered a base with militants, who opened fire and were killed. The area is under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime.