News

Advocates of Evgeny Vitishko have appealed against the decision to place the ecologist in late July 2014 for three days into the punishment cell (dungeon). The defence has also prepared a complaint against the verdict to the ecologist.

Elvin Abdullaev, a member of the Youth Committee of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was detained in Baku on suspicion of drug dealing. Elvin Abdullaev is persecuted for political reasons, PFPA believes.

On January 9, the day of restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), abolished after the deportation of Chechens and Ingushes in 1944, residents of Chechnya commemorated victims of Stalin's deportation.

The murder of the football player Gasan Magomedov has deeply concerned residents of Dagestan, as the fans of the "Anji" FC say in their open letter to the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). They are asking the head of the ICRF to take the investigation into the case under his personal control.

Over 2014, the Azerbaijani Committee against Torture (CaT) received 112 complaints about acts of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment; four of these complaints were related to deaths of detainees, as Elchin Bekhbudov, the head of the CaT, said at a press conference, where the CaT's annual report was presented.

The Georgian parliamentary parties have supported the proposal of the non-parliamentary opposition to reform the electoral legislation and abolish the parliamentary elections by the majority system. They treat the majority system as the worst of all existing ones.

As reported by local residents, at night on January 9, in the city of Derbent, a monument to the prominent Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami was desecrated.

On the occasion of the Orthodox Christmas, the Chechen capital organized a "Christmas Tree" festivity for children of Orthodox families.

Due to a heavy snowfall and icy roads, the patrol-and-post service (PPS) has restricted motor traffic in Sochi. Residents of the city report traffic jams and delays of electric trains.

Today, builders of Olympic facilities in Sochi have stated unpaid debts for their work and asked the Russian MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) Sergey Obukhov to raise the issue at the State Duma.

Today, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has accused Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio, of intent to insult Muslims, and said that "there are those who will bring Venediktov to account."

Volgograd policemen are searching for a man who opened fire in a trolleybus from his traumatic pistol and wounded a passenger.

The official Baku and members of religious communities of Azerbaijan have condemned the terror act in Paris. At the same time, Muslim scholars in Azerbaijan express their concern about possible incitement to Islamophobia.

Today, a source from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs has informed the "Caucasian Knot" that Diana Ramazova, suspected of committing a terror act in Istanbul, is not among the recipients of foreign passports issued in Chechnya. According to power agents, Diana Ramazova "has nothing to do with Chechnya."

Because of snowfalls in North Ossetia, the Transcaucasian Highway and the Georgian Military Road are still closed for traffic. The drivers who leave North Ossetia can only reach the dwelling settlement of Buron. Here, a warm-up and nutrition centre has been deployed for them; and within three days over 100 people have already used it.

Employees of the Rescue Service of the Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have completed evacuation of two Latvian tourists stuck in the Gudauri Ski Resort.

Unidentified hooligans destroyed the tomb of Sayyid Mir-Gafar aga in Derbent, which sparked protests among Azerbaijanis living in the city.

The Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty has partially resumed its live broadcasts after a two-week break caused by the closure of its office in Baku. The restricted broadcasting is delivered from the head office of Radio Liberty in Prague.

Today, residents of Armenia and Georgia gathered at rallies to commemorate the casualties of the terrorist attack on the editorial board of the satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris on January 7. The attack was directed against the freedom of speech, said the participants of the events.

The calls of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company, to publish Prophet Muhammad Cartoons in response to the terror attack at the editorial board of the French satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo", make him an enemy of all Muslims, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said today.