News

During his visit to Sukhum, Otari Kobakhidze, a Russian citizen, filmed a video clip, in which he stated that he had returned to his homeland after 33 years. This caused a negative reaction in the Abkhaz society, after which special services detained the man and escorted him out of the country.

Authorities are delaying the liquidation of the environmental disaster without addressing the root cause thereof, Anapa residents have stated in their video appeal addressed to federal authorities, demanding to speed up the pumping out of oil products and lifting the sunken parts of the tankers.

If the incident is officially recognized as a terror act, compensation for the cars damaged in the explosion in Stavropol, in which Zaur Gurtsiev was killed, is available only to CASCO insurance owners.

Dokku Djantemirov, who serves his life sentence in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, has asked to be transferred to a penal colony in the territory of Chechnya, where his relatives live.

As part of the reform of local government in Chechnya, 17 municipal districts will be created, and the urban districts of Grozny and Argun will also be preserved, the Chechen Ministry of Finance reports. Social media users suggest that the reform will result in job cuts and difficulties for citizens in obtaining official documents.

Kazbek Mamikov, a participant in the march in Nalchik held to mark the end of the Caucasian War, who served his administrative arrest, has decided not to appeal against the court’s decision, while two other participants in the march have succeeded in their appeals to reduce their arrest terms. There were no arrests in Maikop, but two activists had to write explanatory notes.

While congratulating Georgian policemen on their professional holiday, Irakli Kobakhidze, the country’s Premier, has stated that within the last four years, law enforcers have prevented four attempts to encroach on Georgia’s sovereignty and a coup d'etat.

Amid the huge spill of fuel oil (mazut) in the Black Sea, the hotel occupancy rate in the Russian city of Anapa has decreased by 50% compared to the same last year’s period. Some hotels are in dire straits because they cannot return money to tourists for cancelled bookings, said a source from the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR).

The arrest of Rufat Safarov, an Azeri human rights defender, accused of fraud, has been extended for other 20 days.

The insults to the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church (AAHC) and interference into its activities by the Prime Minister of Armenia are unacceptable, politicians and churchmen have stated, demanding an apology. The "Ayakve" Initiative has demanded that a criminal case be opened against Nikol Pashinyan.

A memorial plaque to the memory of victims of repressions has been removed from the building of the former NKVD department in Taganrog on the bottom-level initiative. Such actions are a continuation of the trend of hushing up repressions and glorifying Stalin, historians and political analysts point out.

Human rights defender Igor Nagavkin has filed an appeal to the supervisory authorities with a request to assess the insults he was subjected to by the deputy head of the penal colony-settlement.

In Sochi, a man with a hammer tried to enter the synagogue building and threw stones at it. The attacker has been detained.

Taking into account his statement about the “Gunib” sanatorium, Sergey Melikov, the leader of Dagestan, has not touched on the topic of the urban development in Gunib, which has been going on for more than one year. The accusations of activists from the “Gorod Nash” (The City is Ours) movement in disseminating enemy information are groundless.

Law enforcers publicly reprimanded teenage drivers from the Gudermes District of Chechnya for violating traffic rules. Social media users have recalled that Adam Kadyrov, a son of the leader of Chechnya, drives a car, although he is also under 18.

An advocate of journalist Mziya Amaglobeli has filed an appeal against her administrative arrest in the case on insulting a police officer. The defence has submitted to the court an expert analysis of the video recording, indicating signs of falsification of evidence by the police.

More than a hundred stories of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are collected in the book entitled “Artsakh: Blockade and Forced Displacement in Human Stories”. The facts presented in the book should become evidence in international courts, journalists claim.

Nika Meliya, the leader of the oppositional “Coalition for Change”, was detained administratively for insulting a policeman, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported. In his turn, Mr Meliya’s advocate asserts that his client’s detention has to do with the intention to ensure his presence at the trial on failure to comply with the demands of the parliamentary temporary investigating commission.

Abas Saidov and Zamur Tagirov, natives of Dagestan, have been sentenced to 19 years in jail within the case of creating a terrorist grouping. The witnesses, on whose testimonies the charges were based, stated that they had given their testimonies under pressure. The defence has appealed against the verdict.

Nikolai Nabiev, Sergey Kuzovenko and Marina Zakharova, accused of creating an illegal armed formation (IAF), gave their final statements in court. None of them has pleaded guilty.