News

Representatives of the international human rights organizations "Human Rights Watch" (HRW), "Amnesty International" (AI) and "Front Line Defenders" (FLD), in their open letter have called on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to investigate the attacks on rights defenders and condemn the practice of collective punishments.

In the past two days, residents of Chechnya have been massively withdrawing funds from their bank accounts. The reason was in the rumours circulating among people about the upcoming freezing of accounts and credit cards due to a sharp depreciation of the rouble. Bankers think that the panic is unjustified.

The European External Action Service (EEAS), which is a part of the European Union (EU), has issued a statement calling on the authorities of Chechnya to give a balanced response to the surge of tension in the region and condemned the intention of Ramzan Kadyrov to expel militants' families out of the republic.

The court that running the trial of Imangazali Magomedov, a resident of the village of Shaumyan, who is accused of aiding militants and illegal possession of firearms and drugs, has rejected the earlier motions of the defence, including the one demanding to study the three criminal cases, where the same witnesses had been questioned as in the present case.

As reported by a law enforcement source from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), in the village of Dygulybgey, Baksan District of the KBR, power agents shot dead three militants. The counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was lifted at 9:45 a.m. Moscow time.

The Adler District Court of Sochi has handed down a guilty verdict to the builder Mardiros Demerchyan and appointed a punishment of 300 hours of mandatory public work.

The Kuschevsky District Court in the Krasnodar Territory has found Nadezhda Tsapok, the former head and founder of the company "Artex-Agro", guilty of large-scale fraud of embezzling 770 hectares of land.

As reported by the spokesman of the Chechen Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), the versions of a fire from a short circuit in the office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) in no longer considered – the main version of the reason of the fire is arson.

The consideration of the claim lodged by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Chechen Republic against the athlete Murad Amriev, who stated that he had been kidnapped and tortured at the police of Grozny, has been postponed till December 25.

Hassan Zakayev, who is now in custody in Moscow on suspicion of involvement in the capture of the Dubrovka Theatrical Centre on October 23, 2002, is suspected of aiding the militants who carried out the above act.

The Russia's Supreme Court (SC) has rescheduled for January 28 the consideration of the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) with a demand to liquidate the public organization named "The Russian Historical, Educational and Human Rights Society 'Memorial'".

The criminal case initiated against a local resident Khasan Edilkhanov, a suspect of involvement in the war in Syria for the militants, who was detained at Moscow airport, has been delivered ton the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya.

The administration of Khasavyurt continues working normally. The confiscation of documents undertaken by power agents did not prevent the officials to perform their duties and receive citizens, officials, said the staff of the Mayoralty. There were no conflicts, said the officials of the administration of the Khasavyurt District.

The human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) said that the journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested in Azerbaijan for political reasons and recognized her as a "prisoner of conscience".

Moscow has hosted the Memorial Day of Journalists who perished while performing their professional duties; and its participants commemorated their colleagues assassinated in Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria.

A series of solo pickets in support of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders and the Committee against Torture (CaT) in Chechnya was held on December 16 in Moscow without detentions; however, agents of the FSO (Russia's Federal Security Service) and FSB fixed the personal data of the activists who took part in the action.

Armenian rights defenders name overcrowded prisons, poor quality of medical care in them and problems with conditional early relief (CER) among main problems of the country's penitentiary system.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 11, at the demand of the Russian "Roskomnadzor", the radio "Echo Moskvy-Makhachkala" was suspended. As stated by the spokesman of the "Roskomnadzor", the broadcasting was suspended, because the transmitter was broadcasting not from the place, which is specified in the permit for using radio frequencies.

In the opinion of Mairbek Agaev and Milrad Fatullaev, the heads of the weekly "Chernovik" and the newspaper "Nastoyascheye Vremya", respectively, the murder Murad Zalitinov will not have a noticeable effect on the situation in the Dagestan armed underground and will not reduce the level of tension in the republic.

Social packages will be no longer paid out to militants' relatives, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has stated, again pointing out that his republic will enforce the collective responsibility of families for actions of militants.