News

Military experts polled by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent believe that recent more frequent violations of the ceasefire in the conflict zone in Nagorno-Karabakh will not lead to a resumption of a full-scale warfare.

The Magistrate Court of Judicial Precinct 406 of the Nizhny-Novgorod District of Moscow has found Rustam Djalilov, an observer of the edition "Caucasian Policy", guilty of involvement in the extremist organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir", which is banned in the territory of Russia.

Vladimir Sokolov, a native of Sochi, a member of the Public Anti-Corruption Committee, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he was not admitted to the Olympics, although he had his fan's passport and a ticket. Sokolov suggested that the decision was associated with his social activities.

Vladimir Luxuriya, an ex-deputy of the Italian Parliament and a transgender activist, said that he was twice detained by the police in Sochi. The latter denies the detentions.

Evgeny Vitishko, a convicted activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), has been convoyed from the special detention facility of the Tuapse OVD (Interior Division) to the Krasnodar SIZO (pre-trial prison), where he will wait for his departure to a colony-settlement.

In Azerbaijan, Khadija Ismayilova, a well-known investigative journalist and an employee of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Liberty, was summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) as a witness in the criminal case instituted in connection with the material posted by her on the Facebook. The Office saw divulging state secrets in the material and opened a criminal case.

The parents of Magomed Piraev, a former policeman of Kizilyurt, have appealed to the President and Prime Minister of Russia, as well as to the leaders of the country's law enforcement bodies, asking them to supervise the investigation of the criminal case initiated against their son.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, members of the punk band Pussy Riot, have been questioned in connection with a report about a theft at the hotel, the Sochi UVD (Interior Department) reports.

In Sochi, the three Olympic Villages located in the Imereti Lowland and in Krasnaya Polyana, opened – for the days of the Olympic Games – special prayer rooms, serviced by volunteers and clergymen, representing the world's major religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Protestantism.

The term of the administrative arrest imposed on the ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, currently kept at the special detention facility in the city of Tuapse, has expired on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. Moscow time, said the lawyer Alexander Popkov.

On Tuesday, Olga Noskovets, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch) and a member of the City Council of the "Yabloko" Party, was set free from the police division of the micro-district of Blinovo in Sochi.

The Maikop city public organization "Adyge-Khase-Circassian Council" has demanded the release Asker Sokht, the head of the public organization "Adyge-Khase" of the Krasnodar Territory, from custody. The demand was supported by Ilyas Soobtsokov, the ex-chairman of the Adygea regional public organization for revival of national traditions of the Circassian nation "Adyge-Khase".

Today, the former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who had been sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment under the case of the murder of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya, performed as a witness, and repeated his earlier testimony about the preparation for the crime.

Tonight, the Magistrate Court in Sochi has decided to punish the Sochi activist David Khakim with 30 hours of correctional works, said the lawyer Alexander Popkov.

The Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of the Stavropol Territory has begun implementing the decision of the City Court about dismantling of the minaret of the unfinished mosque in Pyatigorsk, the Muftiat of the Territory said on February 16.

As reported by Elena Samoshina, a hunger-striker, the action in Volgograd is continued by 26 parents of many children and parents of children with disabilities. Today, the protesters were visited by representative of Russia's Investigating Committee and State Duma Deputy.

Today, the Frontier Service of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has again stopped Saikhan Muzaev, an ethnic Chechen, who took the citizenship of Georgia in 2011, from boarding the flight Tbilisi-Trabzon-London, said Alex Shoshikelashvili, the head of the Human Rights Institute.

Valery Vitkin, a hospitalized participant of the hunger strike, held by parents of many children and parents of disabled children in Volgograd, has begun taking food, said Georgy Goryachevskiy, another hunger-striker.

On 16 February, in Mashtots Park in Yerevan, members of the initiative group named DEM.AM held a public debate and drafted a plan of action against the country's pension reform. Activists announced their intention to switchover from local actions to broad-scale ones and urged all the opponents of the new pension system to hold a one-day strike.

Competitions at Winter Olympics in Sochi; two attempts of self-immolation in Azerbaijan; special operations against militants in five districts of Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of February 10-16, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".