News

Today is 71 years after the date of the start of the operation known as "Chechevitsa" (Lentils), which took place during the Stalin's deportation of Chechens and Ingushes. Chechen authorities will not hold any official commemoration of deportation victims.

The health status of hunger-strikers in Gldani Prison is deteriorating, while authorities pay no attention to their demands, their relatives assert. The Georgian legislation on amnesty and pardon violates the rights of life convicts, said some NGO activists.

A resident of the settlement of Stary in Grozny has reported that in early February two young men left the settlement to join the underground.

During the week from February 16 to February 22, 2015, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus brought no victims. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

In Azerbaijan, Gyunel Hasanli, the daughter of Jamil Hasanli, the leader of the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison on charges of committing a traffic accident.

Ruslan Kutaev, the head of the Assembly of North-Caucasian Nations, sentenced to prison, is serving his term in the Chernokozovo colony in the Naur District of Chechnya.

Gadjimurad Omarov, the chairman of the regional branch of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party, who was attacked and beaten in Dagestan has left for Moscow via Chechnya.

250 inmates kept in a high security colony in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) have gone on a hunger strike in protest against the inhuman treatment of two inmates, their relatives report. However, the colony bosses state that the information about the hunger strike is false.

In Sochi, about 50 people took part in the all-Russian "Antimaidan" campaign. They came up with posters reading: "It's time to drive fifth column away!", "Let's give powers to head of state!" and "Let's support Putin's policy!", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Today, Gadjimurad Omarov, the head of the regional branch of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party, was beaten up in Makhachkala.

Today, a man, suspected of committing a grave crime, was found hanged in the temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the MIA of the Rostov Region.

Today, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has set the official exchange rate of 1.05 manats for 1 US dollar, against 0.78 manats for 1 US dollar on February 20. The CBA's decision will tell on the real incomes of the population, Azerbaijani experts assert.

The court session on the lawsuit lodged by the former opposition activist Elman Turkoglu (Gasanov) against the journalist Khadija Ismayilova was held behind closed doors in the Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison). The claimant demanded to find Khadija guilty of libel.

The hunger strike of 42 life prisoners continues in Gldani Prison in Georgia. Five of them are under continuous medical monitoring.

Power agents conducted mass detentions of young people in central Grozny at the background of the visit to the city of Sergey Melikov, the Russian presidential envoy to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), townspeople have reported. In his turn, the spokesman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said that the actions were not massive.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has reconsidered the verdict to Said Mazhaev, who was convicted for participation in the war in Syria, and reduced his prison term from two years down to eight months, which he has already served in the SIZO (pre-trial prison).

On February 18 and 19, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andrieu (France) and James Warlick (USA), accompanied by Andrzej Kasprzyk, the personal representative of the Chairman of the OSCE, visited the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

An exhibition of photos taken at rallies, held in Tbilisi in support of the Ukrainian Euromaidan in 2014, was opened on February 20 in the presidential library named after Mikhail Saakashvili. Activists of the NGO "Free Generation" held a protest action at the library; and some unidentified persons threw packs of paint at the windows of the building.

The health condition of the 10 villagers of Shushiya, who hold a hunger strike in support of their demand to allocate land, causes no doctor's concern, Minazhat Gadjieva, a nurse of the Shushiya feldsher-midwife station, told the "Caucasian Knot".

The international human rights organizations "Amnesty International" (AI) and "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) have expressed their readiness to help Professor Mikhail Savva, the Director of Grant Programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre (SRRC), who was forced to leave Russia for fear of further prosecution.