News

On January 20, at 9:20 a.m., Olympic torch relay started up in Volgograd from Gogol Street. City residents have expressed their dissatisfaction with the difficulties to move around the city, since many streets were blocked.

In Astrakhan, members of the Jewish community have reported on a sudden inspection of the synagogue by law enforcers. According to them, they were looking for illegal immigrants.

All person killed during the special operation carried out in the village of Semender near Makhachkala have been identified. This was reported by law enforcers.

Bomb explosion at entertainment complex in Makhachkala and a special operation where seven suspected militants were killed; information appearing on the web about the death of Doku Umarov, the leader of North-Caucasian militants; election of jurors for Anna Politkovskaya's murder case and searches at lawyer Musaev's before the court session, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 13-19, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

During the week of January 13-19, 2014, at least 37 persons suffered in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. Of them, 16 persons were killed, and 21 persons were wounded. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The grouping "Ansar al-Sunna" claims responsibility for the terror acts in Volgograd. This was announced by the statement disseminated on the websites supporting North-Caucasian militants.

Hundreds of people took part in the procession in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, which was organized in Moscow by the "Committee of January 19". The action was held under the anti-fascist slogans, and it was attended by members of the "Yabloko" Party, the "Red and Black Block", the LGBT community, trade unions and other organizations.

On January 21-23, Co-Rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee will visit Azerbaijan to assess how the country fulfils its obligations to the Council of Europe. Local human rights defenders are preparing to submit a list of Azerbaijani political prisoners at the meeting with the PACE Co-Rapporteurs.

For the period of January 20-March 21, the boundaries of the border zone in the Gagra District of Abkhazia will be changed because of the Olympic Games in Sochi. The appropriate decision was made by the Government of Abkhazia.

On January 17, the Chechen Prosecutor's Office appealed to the Zavodskoi District Court of Grozny to recognize the website "Chechenews" as extremist.

In Rostov-on-Don, Pavel Nagibin, an activist of the Other Russia, and Arkady Zykov, a member of the "Russian Resistance", were arrested. Their colleagues associate their arrest with the upcoming Olympic torch relay in the city.

In the city of Teberda, the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), on Saturday, policemen detained a young man, in whose house they had found ammunition. This was reported by the press service of the Chief Department of the Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the KChR.

On Saturday, Volgograd hosted a picket demanding to ensure people's safety by power agents, organized by the regional branch of the "Volya" (Will) Party. There were four picketers.

The policeman from the city of Izhevsk, wounded in a shootout in Buynaksk on December 25, died on Saturday, said the MIA of Udmurtia.

At the trial held at the Adler District Court of Sochi against a former policeman Sergey Kuznetsov, accused of abuse of office by beating Pavel Solovyov, a builder at Olympic facilities, the defence witnesses claimed innocence of the ex-policeman.

The Ingush authorities have promised to build a new block of flats for the tenants of the so-called "Khruschovkas", now demolished in Karabulak, said Ferdos Musieva, a tenant. Magomed Bekov, the republic's Deputy Prime Minister, has assured that for the period of construction all the 15 families will be provided with temporary housing.

A rally demanding to repeal the new accumulative pension system is held on Saturday in Yerevan with the participation of Armenian oppositional parties. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports an audience of 10,000.

As reported by the spokesman for the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), seven people were killed by power agents in a special operation conducted in the village of Semender located in the outskirt of Makhachkala.

The nongovernmental organizations, public figures and journalists-members of the coalition "Eurasian Choice-Georgia" have addressed the prime minister and president of Georgia urging them to send an official delegation to the Olympics in Sochi.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found that on the issue of non-giving out bodies of suspected militants to their relatives for burial, applicants have no effective remedies in Russia, said Furkat Tishaev, the legal director of the Autonomous Non-commercial Organization (ANO) "Astreya".