News

Today, the Coordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has started its work in Sochi. At the end of this tenth and final visit of the IOC officials, they will give their final assessment of the readiness of Sochi for the Winter Olympics.

The investigating authorities have directed the indictment on the criminal case against Professor Mikhail Savva from Kuban State University, the director of grant programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre, who is kept in custody since April, for approval to the Prosecutor's Office.

On September 25, the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow plans to consider the claim lodged by Shamil Isaev, a Deputy of the People's Assembly of Dagestan, against the journalist Orhan Jemal on protection of his honour and dignity. The MP demands to recognize the facts presented in Jemal's article about the investigation of the murder of the Dagestani journalist Gadjimurad Kamalov as untrue and defamatory.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the "National Revival" Party has released the first issue of newspaper "Revival". Local residents believe that to be successful, the new edition is to highlight the acute problems of the society ignored the media controlled by the authorities.

In the course of the court session held on the case of the attack on Nalchik, advocates of the defendants in the episode "Landysh" (Lily-of-the-valley), asked the court to sentence their clients to terms of imprisonment already spent by them in custody in SIZO (pre-trial prison).

In the village of Mutsalaul, the brothers Gasan and Gusein Magomedov were detained after their house was searched. The reason for detention was in the grenades and a TNT block, which, according to their relative, were planted there by power agents. The brothers are suspected of aiding members of the illegal armed formations (IAFs), said a source from the Khasavyurt ROVD.

The hunger-strikers try to attract attention to the problems of maternity and childhood in the Volgograd Region and dismiss the Governor Sergey Bozhenov, Elena Samoshina, one of the hunger-strikers, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Tyurkel Kerimli, the son of the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Ali Kerimli, has been sentenced to 25 days of administrative arrest. The police accused him of removal of campaign materials of presidential candidates from street stands.

The explosion triggered by a suicide bomber in the village of Khuchni, Tabasaran District of Dagestan, injured ten policemen and two civilians, said the press service of the Russian MIA for the republic.

The court has sentenced Vardan Sedrakyan – the main figurant in the case on the attempt on the former presidential candidate Paruir Airikyan – to 14 years in prison. Another defendant Khachatur Pogosyan received the same term, while the third defendant Samvel Arutyunyan was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Suicide attacks in Chechnya and Ingushetia; start of presidential election campaign in Azerbaijan; statements about solving the murder of Russian diplomat in Sukhumi; recall of license of "Business Bank" in Dagestan; election of Speaker of Parliament and approval of Premier in Ingushetia; post-election rally of communists in Volgograd that caused legality doubts with the police, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of September 16-22, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

An oppositional rally in Baku has supported the presidential candidate of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Gasanli and expressed confidence in his victory. The rally's resolution calls on the incumbent Ilham Aliev not to use his administrative resources in the election campaign, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

In Makhachkala, residents of the village of Khrakh-Uba held an assembly, where they discussed the land plot allotted in the Magaramkent District for exclave residents. The land belonging to the Novoaul village council is unfit for building houses due to floods that happen in the area, the villagers have stated.

On September 21, Nasir Djavadov, the alleged customer of the murder of the head of the Magaramkent District of Dagestan, died of heart failure while questioned at the criminal search department of the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), said the spokesman of the department for the region of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). In his turn Niyaz Djavadov, Nasir's brother, asserts that he died as a result of beatings.

Relatives of Saadula Kuraev, who was shot dead in a shootout in Makhachkala claim that the facts about the shooting released by power agents have contradictions. This was reported by Aisha Selimkhanova, an activist of the Dagestani regional public organization (DRPA) "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy).

The Georgia's Central Election Commission (CEC) has announced that 22 politicians have been registered as presidential candidates for the election scheduled for October 27.

53 workers from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Russia engaged in building houses for volunteers in Sochi, have addressed the Sochi branch of the network "Migration and Law" with a complaint about non-payment of their salaries for three months. The workers have a chance to get some of the money, says Semyon Simonov, the coordinator of the network.

Alexei Zhuravlyov, a Russian MP and the chairman of the party "Rodina" (Motherland) has sent an inquiry to the Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika asking him to check the legality of opening a monument to girls who perished in the 1817-1864 Caucasian War period in the Chechen village of Khangish-Yurt.

On September 21, at 3:30 p.m., in Akushinsky Street, a man was killed after he opened fire on policemen, when they asked him to present documents. According to preliminary data, the policemen killed Zaur Sheikhakhmedov, the leader of the so-called "Caspian" bandit grouping.

Vladislav Surkov is the best person to address the topical issues that have arisen in Russia's relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, believes Alexander Skakov, the coordinator of the working group of the Centre for Studying Central Asia and Caucasus of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RussianAcademy of Sciences.