News

Today, on the anniversary of the terror act committed in the city of Volgodonsk in 1999, mourning ceremonies were held by townspeople to commemorate the victims of the explosion. Early in the morning, Father Cornelius, the Bishop of Volgodonsk and Salsk, delivered a mourning prayer; and city residents laid flowers, the magazine named "Delovoy Kvartal" reports.

On September 15, Alexander Tkachov, the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, ordered to organize 71 temporary accommodation centres (TACs) for refugees from Ukraine based on hotels, resorts, sanatoria and camps. In total, the Territory will be able to additionally take about 5000 forced migrants.

At the initiative of environmentalists of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, a network of eco-villages named "Ecokhndzoristan" was created, which includes the Karabakh villages of Khndzoristan, Patara and Astkhashen. The project assumes to produce ecologically clean foodstuffs and use of modern technologies for waste recycling.

About 200 people took part in the march held in Yerevan in support of Schagen, the son of the leader of the "Tsegakron" Party Shant Arutyunyan, who is under a threat of five years in prison in connection with the incident that happened during the "Million Mask March".

On September 16, the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) of the Tsentralny District of Volgograd will recount the votes at one of the polling stations under the complaint of Gennady Murylyov, a candidate for the Regional Duma from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party.

In Ingushetia, law enforcers are in search of a group of unidentified gunmen, who opened fire from a car at the staff of the regional traffic police (known as GIBDD) department. The shelling did not hit anybody, the local MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) reports.

During the today's session in Sochi on the case of the builder Mardiros Demerchyan, accused of defaming the police, the court has rejected all the petitions lodged by his advocates. The court announced the conclusion of forensic expert, which states that defining the authenticity of the witness's signature proved impossible.

Today, the Moscow City Court (MCC) has dismissed the petition lodged by advocates of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a figurant in the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", and asking to postpone the execution of punishment.

Today, bomb experts from the FSB have blown up an improvised explosive device (IED) detected on the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), says the Information Centre of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).

As reported today by the "Kommersant", without specifying its source, the Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan has sent for retrial the case of a doctor Marat Gunashev, accused of involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The City Court of Bataisk, Rostov Region, has found three former district policemen of the GOVD (City Interior Division) guilty of abuse of power. Each of them was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a general security colony.

During the week of September 8-14, 2014, at least two persons were killed in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. No wounded persons were reported. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources. According to law enforcers, both deceased persons were suspected members of the armed underground in Dagestan.

During the election campaign, which ended on September 14, the "Map of Election Fraud" received more than 30 reports from five regions of Southern Russia. Some of them are published by observers; there are also reports from members of the election commissions and anonymous messages.

Oleg Shein, a candidate for the Governor of the Astrakhan Region, has recognized Alexander Zhilkin's victory, but stated violations at several polling stations and demanded a control vote recount. Shein said that his demand was supported by Alexander Zhilkin himself.

Voting in Southern Russia to elect heads of the four regions and legislative assemblies of three regions; closing TACs opened earlier for Ukrainian refugees in Rostov Region; adoption of the first reading of abolition of direct election of municipality heads in Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of September 8-14, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The recurring incidents of attacks on media workers and obstacles to their activities result from the impunity of criminals who have committed such acts. Meanwhile, journalists fail to use all the means of judicial protection. This was stated by members of Armenian NGOs at the press conference in Yerevan.

Members of the Chechen Diaspora in Austria are sceptical about the information about the alleged participation of the Chechens living in Europe in Ukrainian hostilities. The Ukrainian authorities are supported by nationalists from Sweden, France and Italy, but not by Caucasians, said Orhan Cemal, a correspondent of the Forbes Magazine.

Members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) have filed five complaints about electoral violations in Volgograd, including illegal voting, obstructing observers to participate in the visiting voting, etc. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Katerina Pechenova, the head of the press service of the regional branch of the CPRF.

The "Russian United Labour Front" (Rot Front) and the "Communists of Russia" Parties treat the withdrawal of their candidates from the elections to the Parliament and district soviets of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) held on September 14 as an ungrounded and politically motivated decision. This was stated by members of the Parties.

In Grozny, the court has recognized entrepreneur Islam Bashlaev guilty of distributing the book "Fortress of the Muslim" included in the federal list of banned literature. On September 8, the Zavodskoi District Court of Grozny found Islam Bashlaev guilty of an administrative offense under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation (storage of extremist materials for mass distribution) and sentenced the defendant to a fine.