News

The American NGO IREX (Council for International Researches and Exchanges) has announced the termination of its activities in Azerbaijan, which was launched back in 1998, and the closure of its office in Baku.

In the Tambov Region, Evgeny Vitishko, a convicted ecologist from Krasnodar, will be transferred from his colony-settlement to a general-security colony for his admitted violations of the regime, said his advocate Valentina Shaisipova.

A well-known Islamic preacher Nadir Abu Khalid (Nadir Medetov), the kidnapping of whom was announced by his relatives on Wednesday, was found at the Kirov ROVD (District Interior Division) of Makhachkala. His relatives assert that firearms were planted on him.

On October 7, the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Grozny hosted a mass march, which, according to the authorities, was attended by about 100,000 people. Civil servants, teachers and students of educational institutions claim they were forced to take part in the event.

Ecologist Evgeny Vitishko sentenced in the case of damage to the fence around the so-called "Governor Tkachov's summer cottage" is being prepared for the transfer from a penal settlement-colony to a common-security penal colony. This was announced by Andrei Rudomakha, the coordinator of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch).

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), residents of the village of Psykhurei, Baksan District, have held a gathering and declared the inadmissibility of desecration of the local cemetery, where two suspected members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) were killed.

Residents of the settlement of Vremenny, Untsukul District of Dagestan, where a large-scale special operation is underway, report that almost all civilians left the village. The villagers complain that law enforcers do not allow them to make video records of what is happening in the village and take their mobile phones away.

At a rally held in the village of Terekli-Mekteb of the Nogai District of Dagestan, Akhmed Bataliev, the Deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan, has made public a name of the policeman, who shot and killed Eradil Asanov and promised to carry out the investigation into the incident.

Three suspected members of an illegal armed formation (IAF), who were shot dead by policemen at a checkpoint of the road-and-patrol service (known as DPS) near the village of Khebda of the Shamil District of Dagestan, were involved in the assassinations of prominent religious figures Sirazhutdin Khuriksky and Shamil Badaviev.

The incident in the city of Mineralnye Vody (Minvody), where a man died after a mass fight at the hospital and where his death was followed by mass protests, was the result of the complex problems in the Stavropol Territory. Meanwhile, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe the conflict should not be divided into interethnic and domestic sides.

In Moscow, a memorial ceremony took place near the building of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". It was organized by the international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI); its participants demanded to find those who had ordered the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

In the villages of Kharakhi and Orota of the Khunzakh District of Dagestan, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced, a source from the enforcement bodies reports. Residents of the village of Orota state they have no problems associated with the regime.

In Azerbaijan, Movsum Samedov, the convicted leader of the Islamic Party, faces a threat of tightening of detention regime. The administration of the penal colony No. 12, where Movsum Samedov was transferred, has submitted to the court a request to place him in the Gobustan closed prison for the term of three years.

Till present, Zarkipli Ramazanov, who disappeared on September 16, has not yet been found. His family members have filed to the leader of Dagestan and the law enforcement bodies a complaint about his kidnapping; however, they did not receive any response neither from the administration of the Dagestani leader nor from the law enforcement bodies.

Eradil Asanov, a resident of the Nogai District of Dagestan, who was shot dead on October 6 at the ROVD (District Interior Division), never attacked policemen, his family members assert.

Sabina Abakarova, a resident of Makhachkala, was found guilty by the court of possession of a "shakhid belt", has appealed against the verdict. This was announced by her advocate Konstantin Mudunov.

The advocate of Murat Zakharyaev, who was convicted in Astrakhan along with five other figurants in the case related to recruitment of militants for taking part in warfare in Syria, Egypt and Northern Caucasus, has appealed against his client's verdict.

In Georgia, the NGO "Citizen", founded by former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, has launched two projects. The minimum budget for each of them has reached one million laris, Bidzina Ivanishvili announces.

On October 6, in the village of Kirovaul of the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, 15-20 persons, including local resident Patimat Nasibova, were detained, the villagers report. According to them, in the afternoon, five persons were still kept at the police station.

On October 6, the Leninsky District Court in Rostov-on-Don, which is considering the case of Sergey Reznik, a journalist, blogger and political scientist, accused of false denunciation and insulting the authorities, interrogated three witnesses for the prosecution, said Natalia Reznik, Sergey's wife.