News

On July 3, in Grozny, law enforcers killed Khusein Dakhtaev, who was suspected of the murder of a staff member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Residents of the Chechen capital state that the suspect was shot dead without any warning.

Ukrainian refugees, accommodated in the Volgograd Region, have filed an appeal to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, where the forced migrants raised issues on their employment and repatriation. The refugees ask the Russian State Duma to define their status and explain it to them.

On July 7, in Armenia, at the trial of Volodya Avetisyan, a retired Colonel and a Karabakh War veteran, the public prosecutor asked to sentence him to 6.5 years of imprisonment. In his final speech, Volodya Avetisyan refused to plead guilty. The pronouncement of the verdict has been postponed for indefinite period.

On July 6, the Untsukul District of Dagestan was put under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime. According to the NAC, the special operation claimed the life of one law enforcer; three other power agents were wounded. Five suspected militants were killed; and three of them were identified as Rasul Gadjiev, Abdulkhalim Gadjiev and Magomed Adalaev.

The lawyer Pyotr Zaikin has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that today the Urus-Martan City Court sentenced Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, to four years of imprisonment in a general regime colony. The court also banned Kutaev for one more year to attend public events and be engaged in any public activities.

In the morning on July 7, Mekhman Guseinov, 25, a blogger and an employee of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) of Azerbaijan, was detained and taken to Nasimi district police of Baku and was released three hours later, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Sergey Tsapok, convicted for organizing a massacre in the village of Kuschevskaya, was found dead in a cell of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of Krasnodar, the territorial ID of the ICRF has reported today. No traces of violent death were found on his body; and the preliminary reason thereof is a heart failure, said the FSIN (Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service).

The consideration of the petition lodged by Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Krasnodar Territory demanding to cancel the decision of the Tuapse District Court to place the ecologist Evgeny Vitishko for three years into a colony-settlement was scheduled by the Krasnodar Territorial Court for July 16, Alexander Popkov, Vitishko's advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The screening of the film "Ordered to Forget" can not incite any interethnic or inter-confessional enmity – this is the conclusion of Professor Evgeny Tarasov, the Department Head at the Linguistics Institute of the RussianAcademy of Sciences, who made a linguistic examination of the film banned for screening by the Ministry of Culture.

Call of the leader of "Imarat Kavkaz" to militants to refuse from terror acts against civilians; suspension because of shelling of operation of checkpoint in Russian-Ukrainian border in the Rostov Region; CTO and detentions of parishioners in Dagestan mosques, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of June 29-July 6, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

By July 6, the Southern Federal District (SFD) had deployed 80 stationary and five field temporary accommodation centres (TACs), which received 6917 refugees from the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions of Ukraine, said the press service of the Southern Regional Centre of the Russia's Ministry for Emergencies (MfE).

Slovakia has rendered to Russia Anzor Chentiev, a native of Chechnya, who is suspected of killing two OMON (riot police) agents in Grozny in 2001 and a number of other crimes.

During the week of June 30-July 6, 2014, six persons were killed and at least three other persons were wounded in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Today, in Azerbaijan, the creation of new opposition "Free Democrats" Party has been announced. Sulkhaddin Akper has been elected its Chairman.

In Karachaevsk, Magomed Bidjiev, a detainee kept at the local IVS (temporary detention facility), has cut his veins because of psychological pressure put upon him by investigators and policemen. This was stated by Bela Gappoeva, an advocate from the Karachay-Cherkessian National Advocates' Chamber.

In Sochi, officials ignore the demands of mothers of large families, persons with disabilities, and ecologists. This was stated by participants of the anti-corruption rally held in Sochi. The protestors have also noted indifference of Sochi residents.

In his phone conversation with members of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), ecologist Evgeny Vitishko has complaint about being subjected to pressure by the administration of the penal colony-settlement No. 2 of the Department for the Tambov Region of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN).

On July 5, in Georgia, the Tbilisi City Court pronounced the decision to impose an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 100 laris (about 59 US dollars) on each of the eight protestors detained near the courthouse. The detainees attended the protest action held after the arrest of Gigi Ugulava, former Mayor of Tbilisi. They were found guilty of disorderly conduct near the courthouse.

The Azerbaijani police are investigating an incident that happened in the city of Sabirabad, in the south-west of the country, where a believer was forcibly deprived of his beard. Theologians have condemned the violent form of religious dissent.

About 100 people gathered in Sochi on Saturday for a rally against corruption in power bodies and officials' abuse of power in the sphere of land relations.