News

Today, the Astrakhan Regional Court has reduced the prison term of the temporarily dismissed Astrakhan Mayor Mikhail Stolyarov, convicted of bribery, from 10 to 9 years.

Today, Grozny reopens the House of Press, which was damaged during the special operation against militants on December 4. Journalists of "Molodyozhnaya Smena" (Youth Generation) have already returned to their offices in the building; the remaining tenants plan to do in the coming days, said a source from the Grozny administration. The marketplace "Berkat" has partially resumed its work.

Residents of the Staropromyslovskiy District of Grozny have reported that in the evening on December 24 law enforcers checked their passports. A source from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said that the checks are of preventive pre-holiday character. Meanwhile, residents of Grozny fear of a new militants' attack.

For the period of the New Year holidays, the alpine resorts of the Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi have increased the cost of ski passes by an average of 30-40%. The press service of the ski resort "Roza Khutor", which will open its slopes on December 26, has attributed their higher prices to a large inflow of tourists.

The Attorney Office of the United States has disagreed with the petition lodged by the advocates of the ethnic Chechen Johar Tsarnaev, who is accused of organizing the terror act at the Boston Marathon, to postpone the trial until September 2015.

Law enforcement officers conducted searches of houses in the village of Bayram, Khasavyurt District, and detained a local resident Magomed Sulaev. Earlier Sulaev reported being subjected to torture by the police. During the day his relatives could not locate him, said the lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova.

Today, the student Magomed Aliev, accused of promoting terrorism, was moved from the hospital to the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of Stavropol, the lawyer Alieva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. His relatives fear that his health condition may worsen.

In Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, a teacher of the Zovasar Rural School, who protested against the accumulative pension system, has won a lawsuit against his principal.

Today, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) has dismissed the appeal complaint lodged by the journalist Parviz Gashimli against his conviction.

Levon Airapetyan, a businessmen and notable member of the Armenian Diaspora in Russia, who is kept under home arrest in Moscow as a figurant in the "Bashneft" case, was urgently hospitalized.

The verdict to figurants in the case of the attack on Nalchik was a result of torture and a miscarriage of justice, says the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI). Human Rights Watch (HRW) have accused Russian authorities of their refusal to investigate the evidence of facts of torture.

Magomed Karsamov, a native of the Chechen Republic, has disappeared under unclear circumstances in Moscow. According to his relatives, the young man was kidnapped by law enforcers

The residents of the Volgograd Region, who suffered during the last year's terror acts, will receive compensations for their lost property. The Russian government has decided to allocate 2,047,000 roubles for the purpose.

At night on December 21, the house of the family of the Chechen field commander Aslambek Vadalov in the village of Ishkhoy-Yurt, Gudermes District of Chechnya, was demolished by power agents with the help of bulldozers, local residents report.

In the course of the voting at the municipal elections in Azerbaijan violations were registered, the "Musavat" Party has stated. The most common violations were massive throw-ins of ballot papers by one voter and multiple voting of same people at different polling stations.

Alexander Valov, the owner of the website "BlogSochi", has filed a complaint against the decision of the magistrate judge, under which he had served five days in jail. The consideration of the complaint is scheduled for December 24.

The advocates of Johar Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen, who is accused of organizing the terror act at the Boston Marathon run, have petitioned to postpone the start of the trial until September 2015.

This afternoon, Zurab Bisiev, who was wounded in the militants' attack on Grozny, has died at the Moscow MIA hospital. Thus, the number of law enforcers lost in the above attack has reached 15.

The Khasavyurt City Court has dismissed the lawsuit on protection of honour and dignity put forward by the Dagestani MIA Interior Ministry against the lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova.

The voting at municipal elections in Azerbaijan is over; the voter turnout was 38.93 percent. No complaints were reported in the process, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has reported.