News

Appointment of Ramzan Kadyrov as acting head of Chechen Republic; conviction of Nadezhda Savchenko, imposed by court in Rostov Region; decision of Supreme Court of Russia upholds verdict to Said Amirov, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of March 21-27, 2016, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The tractor run to Moscow, organized in protest against forcible land seizures in the Krasnodar Territory and scheduled for today, has been cancelled after farmers met a member of the All-Russia People's Front.

The crash of Boeing 737-800 of the "FlyDubai" in Rostov-on-Don could be caused by a quarrel between the pilots, the newspaper "Kommersant" reports.

In Tbilisi, activists held civil hearing on the topic "'Gazprom' as a Moscow's lever of pressure on Southern Caucasus". The event was held on March 26. The public hearing was attended by about 30 people, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

At the action organized by the CPRF (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), residents of the city of Volgograd, the town of Volzhsky and a number of rural areas have demanded to stop the growth of prices for food, utilities, and gas services. According to the organizers, the protest action was attended by 300 people.

In Dagestan, the operational headquarters has made a decision to lift the counterterrorist operation (CTO) legal regime, which was introduced in the village of Andi of the Botlikh District on March 25.

Visirpasha Musaev, a resident of Dagestan, has filed a complaint about the unfounded actions of the District Judge. Visirpasha Musaev is seeking the initiation of criminal proceedings on the alienation of a land plot in the centre of the village of Burtunai of the Kazbek District. According to an advocate of Visirpasha Musaev, the complaint about the Judge's actions was directed to the Qualification Board of Judges.

In Freedom Square in Yerevan, the "Armenian Women’s Front" have started collecting signatures against police violence and in support of Ruzanna Egnukyan, who got a head injury during the dispersal of the protest action on March 24.

On March 25, residents of Volgograd, living in Avtotransportnaya Street in the Voroshilov District, held a picket in Lenin Square against the decision of the authorities to demolish their houses and blocks of flats, apartments in which were purchased by tenants in compliance with all the respective regulations.

The terror acts in Belgium and France have exacerbated Europeans' negative attitude toward the North-Caucasian Diaspora, said Sasha Kulaeva, head of the Division of Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), in her interview to the "Caucasian Knot".

Today, the Caspian Defence Studies Institute (CDSI) has promulgated its statistics on human losses of the defence and security units of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia since the start of 2016 and up to March 25, as Jasur Sumerinli, one of the founders of the CDSI, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On March 25, the body of Maryam Murtuzova, born in 1959, was found in the Sheki penitentiary institution. This has been reported today by an official from the law enforcement authorities. According to him, Maryam Murtuzova was found hanged on her own scarf. The law enforcement authorities of Azerbaijan believe that the prisoner committed suicide.

On March 25, a meeting of anti-terrorist commission was held in the Untsukul District. At the meeting, Ramazan Abdulatipov has delivered a speech. The leader of Dagestan has reported that about 70 natives of the Untsukul District are involved in the hostilities in Syria, and he accused them that they dishonour "the names of prominent natives of Dagestan".

Yervand Pirumyan from the village of Tagavard was wounded as a result of a missile attack from the Azerbaijani side, reports the Defence Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh. Residents of the village have confirmed the information.

Nadezhda Savchenko, a citizen of Ukraine, sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment, can be exchanged, but the decision should be made personally by the President of Russia. This was stated by Sergey Ivanov, Chief of the Presidential Administration of Russia. Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the Ukrainian "Fatherland" Party, reports that the agreement on the extradition of Nadezhda Savchenko has been already achieved.

Investigators have accused a resident of Buynaksk of an attempt on the lives of policemen, involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs), illicit trafficking in arms and explosive devices. The criminal case has been brought to the court.

During the climb, the commander of the aircraft that crashed down in Rostov-on-Don turned off the autopilot; then the plane began rapidly losing altitude and subsequently hit the earth. This is evidenced by the decoded crew's conversations a minute before the tragedy.

A criminal case against a resident of the city of Grozny, the Chechen capital, accused of beating his son, has been sent to the court. The father is under threat of an arrest for up to three months.

The "Committee for the Prevention of Torture" uses the funds of the programme for rehabilitation of torture victims to help Bashir Pliev, beaten in an attack on human rights defenders and journalists on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya.

In the Krasnodar Territory, more and more farmers decide not to take part in the tractor trip to President Vladimir Putin because of pressure from the local authorities, report organizers of the action. Only some individuals have reported on their readiness to go to Moscow in tractors.