News

Alautdin Dadaev, a resident of the village of Agachaul, who was detained on February 17 and whose house was blown up on February 20, is suspected of aiding members of illegal armed formations (IAFs), said his lawyer Selim Magomedov.

On February 24, Volgograd was the venue of a series of solo pickets against the verdict in the so-called "Bolotnaya case", Boris Stikhin, an activist of the International Union of Anarchists, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As of today, the hunger-striking parents of many children and parents of disabled children suspend their endless action and announce the beginning of the so-called "fan-type" (intermittent) hunger strike. One of the reasons is the state of health of the majority of protesters.

In the city of Astrakhan, the apartment buildings Nos. 16, 16G and 18 in Porokhovaya Street, inhabited by more than 170 families, have been found to be in emergency condition and subject to demolition, said the Vice-Mayor Gennady Didenko. The tenants, who fought for resettlement for two years, should move into new flats until December 31, 2015.

In the outskirts of the village of Chontaul of the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, the body of the soldier of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) was found; he was kidnapped by unknown masked men while hunting about a month ago, said a source from local law enforcement bodies.

On February 24, the advocates of Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", detained on February 20 on suspicion of illegal possession of three grams of heroin, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya against the arrest of their client, said Igor Kalyapin, the chairman of the Interregional Public Organization "Committee against Torture".

On February 24, a group of Armenian public and political figures announced the establishment of the Euromaidan Solidarity Committee to provide "political and moral support" to Ukrainian oppositionists and disseminate the truthful information about events in Ukraine.

A former employee of the Moscow militia Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov said during the session of the Moscow City Court (MCC) that he had recognized one of the defendants, Rustam Makhmudov, in the video presented by the defence.

After the Winter Olympics, the Mountain Cluster of Sochi should be developed as a ski resort; there is no need to place a gambling zone there, said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

On Monday, Lydia Lepsveridze held a protest in Sochi against the decisions of the courts, which deprived her of housing and fined her after the picket she held near the residence of the Russian President.

The convicted ecological activist Evgeny Vitishko has convoyed from SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1 of Krasnodar to a colony outside the Krasnodar Territory, said Anna Mitrenko, a member of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) for observance of human rights in places of detention.

The public organization "Adyge-Khase" of the Republic of Adygea has addressed Yuri Kokov, the Acting head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) asking not to admit the deportation from Russia of the students from Syria, accused of involvement in the anti-Olympic action.

Completion of Winter Olympic Games in Sochi; solidarity actions with the Kiev Euromaidan held in Tbilisi and Yerevan; 70 years after start of Stalin's deportation of Chechens and Ingushes; conviction of former Prime Minister of Georgia Vano Merabishvili, legal recognition of life sentence to Ali Taziev, who, according tolaw enforcers, was one of militants' leaders in Northern Caucasus; continued pumping Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, – read about these and other major events in the review of week of February 17-23, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

During the week of February 17-23, 2014, no information about the casualties and wounded persons in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus has been reported. These are the results of the calculations of the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The events in Ukraine have had an impact on the society and politicians in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, said participants of the hearings held in Tbilisi on the topic "Euromaidan and its impact on countries of Southern Caucasus".

According to the poll conducted by the Levada Centre, the majority of Russia's population remains pessimistic in assessing the situation in Northern Caucasus and in expectations as to possible developments in the region.

The Committee of the United Nations is for the first time considering a complaint of a resident of Chechnya on domestic violence; earlier, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) refused to consider it, said Furkat Tishaev, the legal director of the organization named "Astreya".

The activists Olga Noskovets and David Khakim, who were delivered on Sunday to the Khosta ROVD (District Interior Division) in Sochi, were detained for 48 hours; they are suspected of disobeying the police. Khakim went on hunger strike, said the lawyer Alexander Popkov.

After talking with policemen, Lydia Lepsveridze, a resident of Sochi, signed a refusal to hold protests in the Olympic Park.

Irakli Macharashvili, an expert of the NGO "Green Alternative", asserts that the project Khudoni Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) is not yet well devised; and its implementation will have a negative impact on the ecology of Svaneti. Local residents are categorically against the construction.