News

In Dagestan, a disappeared resident of the village of Krasnoarmeisk was found in the Kirov ROVD (District Interior Division) of Makhachkala. He is suspected of aiding and abetting a member of illegal armed formations (IAFs).

Irakli Okruashvili, the former Defence Minister of Georgia, has been cleared of last charge relating to professional negligence. On February 7, Judge Zviad Esebua granted the appropriate prosecutors' motion.

In Armenia, Serop Bozoyan, who was sentenced to one year of imprisonment in the case of the explosion of balloons at Republic's Square, was sentenced to conditional imprisonment.

11 Russian human rights organizations have filed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the complaint against the law on non-commercial organizations. The human rights defenders believe that the requirement to get registered as "foreign agents" violates their right to freedom of association and freedom of speech and violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.

The regional office of the unregistered party "Novaya Sila" (New Force) has announced a start of collecting signatures for return of the Stavropol Territory into the Southern Federal District (SFD).

Today, the Georgian government has approved a proposal to ease the law on occupied territories, namely, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as considered by Georgia, and is ready to bring a respective bill for approval of the Parliament.

Tonight, in the Levashin District of Dagestan, unidentified criminals shot dead a local district policeman, said a source from law enforcement bodies.

In Azerbaijan, the 75-year-old writer Akram Aylisli (Naibov), the author of the novel "Stone Dreams" about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, was deprived of the title of "People's Writer" and his personal pension; the respective order was signed today by President Ilham Aliev.

Today in Armenia, at 5:00 p.m., the presidential candidate Aram Arutyunyan, the leader of the "National Accord" Party, went on a hunger strike in front of the Central Election Commission (CEC).

As reported by the local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), during an attack on the police in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan two men were killed and a woman was wounded.

Today, Makhachkala hosted an extraordinary session of the People's Assembly of Dagestan. Magomedsultan Magomedov, the Speaker of the Parliament, was dismissed from his post; and instead the parliamentarians have unanimously elected the former MP of the Russian State Duma Khizri Shikhsaidov.

Today, an attack on policemen was undertaken in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan. During the fight, one attacker was killed and one more wounded. The policemen were not hurt, said the Investigatory Department for Dagestan of the ICRF.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered to dismiss Akhmed Bilalov from all his posts, namely, of Vice President of the Russian Olympic Committee and the head of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Resorts of Northern Caucasus", Dmitry Kozak, the Deputy Prime Minister, has reported.

Activists of the movement "Mekhk-Khel" have organized collection of signatures to a petition addressed to Vladimir Putin, demanding not to sign the bill that would allow the authorities of the republics of Northern Caucasus to cancel direct election of governors.

Valery Kalugin, a Deputy of the Stavropol Territorial Duma from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party, is accused of violating the "Road Traffic Rules", which entailed a human death, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reports.

Gusen Magomedov, who was searched for involvement in organizing terror acts in Moscow metro in 2010, was killed by law enforcers from their ambush, said a source from the Russian Special Forces.

Andreas Gukasyan, a presidential candidate and director of the "Radio-I", who is on a hunger strike, has health problems. Doctors have fixed low blood tension – 80/40, said Armen Grigoryan, a member of his election office.

The detention of three young men, who encouraged people to read books, is illegal, said Intigam Aliev, the head of the Society of Legal Education.

The report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), based on interviews with migrant workers engaged at Olympic and other construction sites in Sochi, will be presented today at a briefing in Geneva. The report documents different violations of migrant workers' rights and facts of their exploitation by employers.

Tonight in Makhachkala, unidentified persons opened fire at a car with policemen inside and wounded one of them, a source from law enforcement bodies of the city has reported.