News

Today, the actions of lighting candles in memory of the deceased infant Sergey Avetisyan were held in the central Vardanants Square in Gyumri and at the house of the assassinated Avetisyan family, said Vahan Tumasyan, the head of the NGO "Shirak Centre".

Eyewitnesses and participants of the rally against caricatures on Prophet Muhammad in Grozny have reported contradictory data on the number of people, who came to the action. Internet users have also doubted the statement of the Chechen authorities that the action was attended by more than a million.

In Moscow, on the day of the murder of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist of "Novaya Gazeta" Anastasia Baburova, in the course of the commemoration action, which was sanctioned by the Mayoralty, five persons were detained.

Today, additional law enforcers, including riot police units, have been brought to Gyumri. Police posts in the area of the Russia's Consulate General and the 102nd military base have been reinforced.

Sergey Avetisyan, the six-month-old wounded survival in the attack on his family in Gyumri, has died, said Armenia's Ministry of Public Health.

This morning Grozny has hosted a mass action "We love Muhammad", initiated by Chechen clergy. Most of the participants spoke in support of the rall demands. However, among those, who gathered near the mosque in central Grozny, there were people who said that the event was "voluntary-compulsory" for them.

A man from the native village of Gasan Magomedov, a football player of the "Anji-2" FC, has been detained on suspicion of killing the athlete. This was reported by a source in the law enforcement agencies of Dagestan. According to the source, investigators consider the version that the criminal intended to kill another man.

During the week from January 12 to January 18, 2015, at least three persons perished in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus; no information about wounded was reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The member of the illegal armed formation (IAF), who was shot dead yesterday in the counterterrorist operation (CTO) in Nalchik, was identified as a local resident Alikhan Tochiev, said a law enforcement source of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR).

Massacre in Gyumri that sparked protests among the population of Armenia; mass rallies in Ingushetia stating inadmissibility of caricatures insulting religious feelings; conviction of Kislovodsk Imam Kurman-Ali Baichorov in Stavropol Territory, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 12-18, 2015, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Within the investigation into the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri their relatives and neighbours have been questioned, as well as colleagues of the soldier Valery Permyakov, who is accused of the crime, said Sona Truzyan, the adviser to the head of the Investigating Committee of Armenia.

The man, killed today in a shootout in the vicinity of the village of Verkhnestepnoe, has been identified by his relatives as Tamirlan Makhmutov, the missing villager from Kayasul, Neftekumsk District of the Stavropol Territory.

Some sources have reported that in the warfare in Ukraine, near Donetsk, one Georgian volunteer was killed; and three others were wounded. So far, there is no official confirmation of this information.

Two pickets against the Russian aggression in Ukraine were held in Volgograd and passed without detentions. The picketers were holding posters reading "No to Russian-Ukrainian war!" and "Russia is at war with Ukraine".

The inquiry into the murder of a family in Gyumri will be carried out as promptly as possible; and all those guilty will be punished, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised today in his telephone conversation with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan.

In the course of a special operation in Nalchik power agents shot dead a 23-year-old local resident, who took part in the warfare in Syria as an explosive expert, said a law enforcement source.

In the vicinity of the village of Verkhnestepnoe, Stepnovsky District of the Stavropol Territory, an unidentified man opened fire at policemen from his car and was killed by return fire, said a law enforcement source.

Relatives of Sultan Karasov, a disappeared resident of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), came out to protest and tried to block the "Cherkessk-Nevinnomyssk" highway. The action was stopped after authorities promised to find his whereabouts.

Over 20,000 people took to the all-Ingushetia rally "Islam against Terrorism", where they protested, in particular, against publication of caricatures on Prophet Muhammad, said a source from the press service of the head of the republic.

A complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has been submitted by the advocates of the residents of Chechnya Said-Magomed Tsetiev, Khamzat Tsetiev and Khamid Razhapov, suspected of assaulting employees of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) in Moscow.