News

Foodstuffs in Chechen marketplaces have become much more expensive on the eve of the completion of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, as local residents told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Entrepreneurs say that prices were lifted by wholesalers; and retailers are forced to sell food products more expensive, in order not to remain at a loss.

Farid Mamedov, a minor resident of the village of Alibeili, Tovuz District of Azerbaijan, was wounded by gunfire from the positions of Armenian troops and hospitalized to the hospital in Baku, its doctors have reported today. Doctors have assessed the overall health condition of the teenager as satisfactory.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Abkhazia has approved the membership of the election commissions that will work outside the republic during the presidential election on August 24. The commissions will service the Abkhazians living in Russia and Turkey.

Alexander Tkachov, the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov have been put on the list of persons exposed to sanctions of the European Union (EU) in the context of the worsening situation in the south-east of Ukraine and accession of the Crimea to Russia.

The Ukrainian border checkpoint "Marinovka" was shelled from the territory of the Rostov Region, said the information centre of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Frontier Department of the Russia's FSB for the Rostov Region asserts that because of Ukrainian attacks they had to evacuate almost all the residents of the farm named Primiussky in the Kuibyshev District.

By the evening on July 25, all the 44 detained believers, who protested outside the Israeli Embassy in Baku, were back at large. Four of them were fined administratively, others were warned, said the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (IPA).

Relatives of Dilgam Askerov and Shakhbaz Guliev, the natives of the Kalbadjar District of Azerbaijan, who were detained in Nagorno-Karabakh, have appealed to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ambassador in Baku Vladimir Dorokhin asking for assistance in releasing them.

Alexei Aleturovich, a regular soldier, recruited from the Kirov Region, was found dead in a military unit in Buynaksk, the military prosecutor's office of the city has reported today. His relatives believe that Alexei could become a victim to the hazing in the army unit.

At night on July 24, actively discussed reports appeared in social networks that the page of the Russian soldier Vadim Grigoriev in the "VKontakte" had posted photos of artillery cannons and ammunition with the comment "shelling Ukraine all the night." A few minutes later the mention of Ukraine was deleted, as well as the account itself; however, users managed to make screenshots.

In the morning on July 25, a group of believers held a protest action in front of the Israeli Embassy in Baku in connection with the military actions of the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip. The action organized by the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (IPA) was dispersed by the police; and many protesters were detained.

As reported on July 24 by the press service of the regional department for the prevention and elimination of emergencies (known as DPChS), it was decided to move the temporary accommodation centre (TAC), located three kilometres off the checkpoint "Novoshakhtinsk" in the Rostov Region, away from the Ukrainian border.

The Krasnodar ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, who is serving his term in a colony in the Tambov Region, was reprimanded again – this time for not greeting a colony official, his supporters reported on July 24. In his turn, Gennady Kornienko, the Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, said that the information about a biased attitude to Vitishko in the colony was not confirmed.

The MPs of Nagorno-Karabakh have called to change the freedom restriction measure for Levon Airapetyan, arrested on July 15 in Moscow. A similar appeal was made by the Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Ara Arutyunyan, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The celebration of the end of the fasting month of Ramadan – 'Id al-Fitr – will last for three days in Chechnya, from July 28 to July 30. These days will be days-off. On these days wealthy Muslims are expected to help the poor and needy ones.

On July 24 in Moscow, investigators presented charges to Levon Airapetyan, one of the richest members of the Armenian Diaspora in Russia. The charges were brought under Articles 160 (embezzlement or misappropriation) and 174 (legalization of funds obtained illegally) of the Russian Criminal Code. The defence denies the charges, said Samvel Karakhanyan, one of the advocates.

The South-Ossetian businessman Batyr Pukhaev is on the tenth day of his hunger strike held at the temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the city of Tskhinvali. He refused from hospitalization offered by medics, his advocate Marina Kochieva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In Dagestan, relatives of the local Asoltan Amaev, who was found on July 23 blown up in his car, question the official version of the reason for his death. "Why don't law enforcers want to see the obvious: Asoltan was killed, and the rest was just a staging," one of the relatives claims.

As reported today by Kazimir Botashev, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Karachay-Cherkessia, the boxing coach Psabyda Evgamukov, who had been put, together with his son, on the federal wanted list on suspicion of murdering the Republic's MP Mukhamed Kunizhev, has expressed his intention to surrender to law enforcement authorities.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be placed at the checkpoints "Donetsk" and "Gukovo" in the Rostov Region on the border with Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has reported today.

Today, two wounded Ukrainian soldiers were hospitalized in the town of Gukovo, Rostov Region, said Vasily Malaev, the spokesman for the Regional Frontier Department of the Russia's FSB. Deputy Governor of the Rostov Region has expressed hope that Kiev will compensate for the financial costs of their treatment.