News

The celebration of the end of the fasting month of Ramadan – 'Id al-Fitr – will last for three days in Chechnya, from July 28 to July 30. These days will be days-off. On these days wealthy Muslims are expected to help the poor and needy ones.

On July 24 in Moscow, investigators presented charges to Levon Airapetyan, one of the richest members of the Armenian Diaspora in Russia. The charges were brought under Articles 160 (embezzlement or misappropriation) and 174 (legalization of funds obtained illegally) of the Russian Criminal Code. The defence denies the charges, said Samvel Karakhanyan, one of the advocates.

The South-Ossetian businessman Batyr Pukhaev is on the tenth day of his hunger strike held at the temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the city of Tskhinvali. He refused from hospitalization offered by medics, his advocate Marina Kochieva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In Dagestan, relatives of the local Asoltan Amaev, who was found on July 23 blown up in his car, question the official version of the reason for his death. "Why don't law enforcers want to see the obvious: Asoltan was killed, and the rest was just a staging," one of the relatives claims.

As reported today by Kazimir Botashev, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Karachay-Cherkessia, the boxing coach Psabyda Evgamukov, who had been put, together with his son, on the federal wanted list on suspicion of murdering the Republic's MP Mukhamed Kunizhev, has expressed his intention to surrender to law enforcement authorities.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be placed at the checkpoints "Donetsk" and "Gukovo" in the Rostov Region on the border with Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has reported today.

Today, two wounded Ukrainian soldiers were hospitalized in the town of Gukovo, Rostov Region, said Vasily Malaev, the spokesman for the Regional Frontier Department of the Russia's FSB. Deputy Governor of the Rostov Region has expressed hope that Kiev will compensate for the financial costs of their treatment.

The Centre to Resist Repressions (CRR) created under the Azerbaijani Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) has launched a campaign for the boycott of the European Games to be held in 2015 in Baku. Leyla Yunus, the Director of the IPD, has sent corresponding appeals to the European Olympic Committee and the office of the European Olympic Committee in the European Union.

Faraj Kerimli, 29, the deputy chairman of the youth organization of the oppositional "Musavat" Party, detained on July 23 in Azerbaijan, is suspected of illegal drug possession, said the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Azerbaijan.

The Folk Dance Ensemble of Georgia "Sukhishvili" has cancelled its concert in Saint Petersburg in connection with the events in Ukraine, Nino Sukhishvili, the head of the ensemble, said on July 23.

The health condition of the 4-year-old girl beaten in Grozny and hospitalized in Children's Hospital No. 2 of the capital of Chechnya remains grave, said Ruslan Ganaev, the chief physician of the hospital. Cases, when stepparents apply violence to their foster children periodically occur in the republic, locals report.

In the Stavropol Territory, relatives of Almaz Abdulnasyrov, a resident of the Neftekumsk District, who, according to the official version, was killed in a shootout with power agents in the Novoselitskoe District, ask the Prosecutor's Office to check the legality of policemen's action, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has begun considering the appeal complaint against the verdict passed by the Buynaksk City Court against Zarema Bagavutdinova, an activist of the Dagestani Regional Public Organization "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy). At the July 23 court session, the defence asked to cancel the verdict against Bagavutdinova.

A charity action of food distribution among needy families was held on July 23 in the settlement of Novy in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. In total, volunteers distributed some 200 packages of foodstuffs, Beslan Tsechoev, the adviser to the head of Ingushetia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Aisha Selimkhanova, an activist of the DRPO "Pravozaschita", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that all the mosque-goers detained at night on July 23 in Hungarian Fighters Street had been released.

Asoltan Amaev, a resident of the settlement Tarki of Makhachkala, who was considered missing, was found burned down in his car on the road in the Kumtorkalin District, said the Dagestani Regional Public Organization (DRPO) "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy).

The convict Vladimir Alexeev, a member of the Tsapok's gang, who is kept at SIZO-1 (pre-trial prison) of Krasnodar, has abandoned his earlier announced hunger strike, the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the KrasnodarTerritory has reported today.

Faraj Kerimli, 29, the deputy chairman of the youth organization of the oppositional "Musavat" Party, was detained today in Baku, his advocate reports. His party colleagues believe that Kerimli's detention has to do with his public and political activities and his activism on the Internet.

On July 19, the central park of the city of Maikop became the venue of a flash mob – a public action "City with a Book", held on the initiative of the National Library of Adygea. Aminat Kuchmezova, the head of the sector of mass events of the library, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the main task of the action was to promote reading.

The daily inflow of Ukrainian refugees to the Rostov Region makes 1500-2000 persons, while other regions accommodate some 300-500 people each, Vasily Golubev, the Rostov Governor, told the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Governor believes that the flow of immigrants to other regions should be doubled.