News

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged to use the European Games to be launched in Baku on June 12 to draw attention to human rights violations in Azerbaijan through advantages of social networks on the Internet. Members of the pro-government local NGOs treat the criticism of Azerbaijan on the eve of the European Games as biased.

The closure of the OSCE office in Baku is the Azerbaijan's internal affair. However, the fact gives rise to concern in Armenia. This opinion has been expressed by Armenian experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the village of Oganavan in Armenia, residents of the villages of Oganavan, Karbi, and Ush of the Aragatsotn Region held a protest action against the increase in electricity tariffs. According to the protesters, the growth of electricity tariffs will increase the cost of food products, goods, and services.

In Sochi, cheated real estate investors have occupied apartments at the unfinished residential complex "Jamaica" deprived of electricity and water supply, sewerage system, and heating units. At the upper floors, the people placed posters with the demands to the local and federal authorities to solve the protestors' problems.

Murad Abdulmuslimov, a resident of Makhachkala, whose relatives claimed his possible kidnapping, was detained on suspicion of illegal possession of drugs. At present, he is being kept at the SIZO (pre-trial prison). This has been reported by his mother. The woman believes that her son's rights were violated during his detention.

In Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, more than 60 photographs of endangered monuments of Western Armenia are demonstrated at the mobile photo exhibition "Genocide after Genocide". The exhibition is being held at the initiative of the administration of the State Historical Regional Museum of Nagorno-Karabakh and is dedicated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Today, more than 25 persons have held the single and mass pickets in support of the youth centre for consulting and training in Volgograd.

During the inspection held to detect causes of mass poisoning in the town of Alagir, the Prosecutor's Office of North Ossetia has revealed numerous violations of the sanitary and epidemiological laws.

The charges in the case of the armed attack on the town of Budyonnovsk in 1995 are filed against Ramzan Belyalov and Magomed Mazdaev, two natives of Chechnya. Today, investigators have reported that one of them was detained by Stavropol law enforcers in Gudermes on June 2.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) was forced to cancel its planned visit to Azerbaijan after the authorities at the last moment refused to let the delegation enter Baku. The purpose of the visit was to conduct the briefing in Baku on the theme "Azerbaijan: repressions against the background of the European Games."

Last night, Emma Hughes, a British journalist, a member of the international human rights platform "Sports for Humans", was detained by border guards at the Baku airport. She was denied entry into Azerbaijan despite her visa and her accreditation to cover the European Games.

In Russia, the number of people, who consider the situation in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) to be calm and who are confident in its future improvement, has started to decline, while the events in the region happen almost unnoticed by most Russian residents. These are the results of a new public opinion survey, the "Levada Centre" reports.

Today, Sergey Takoev has resigned from his post as the head of the government of North Ossetia. He mentioned the resignation of North-Ossetian leader Taimuraz Mamsurov as a reason for his own resignation.

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, four local residents have been detained. They are suspected of involvement in the supply of weapons and ammunition as members of a criminal grouping. This was reported by the press service of the Russian FSB Department for the KBR.

The Central District Court of Sochi has cancelled the decision of the magistrate court to seize from a shop of private collector Dmitry Lazarenko a uniform with Nazi symbols and fine him for the Nazi propaganda.

The Lefortovo Court of Moscow has extended until September 15 the detention in custody of Saida Khalikova, a student of the Astrakhan Medical Academy, accused of financial support to the "Islamic State".

Patimat Razhapova, a resident of Grozny, has sent her appeals to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the General Prosecutor's Office, FSB, and the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation. The woman complains about the poor progress of the investigation into of the case, in which her son Khamid Razhapov is involved as one of the defendants.

The Investigating Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has recognized the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) and the Committee against Torture (CaT) victims in the case of pogrom.

Representatives of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office have appealed to the National Security Service of Armenia. They demand to institute a criminal case against Russian border guards, who detained Valery Permyakov.

The 26th International Film Festival "Kinotavr" runs in Sochi starting from June 7. Fourteen films are presented to the main contest of the film festival, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports. A number of the films presented to the jury will include films devoted to Chechnya and Kalmykia.