News

Three persons detained on December 11 in the village of Samur, Magaramkent District of Dagestan, during an unsanctioned protest against construction of water intake station on the river have been released; others are still at the district police station, local residents report.

The participants of the Human Rights Forum held in Baku have called on the authorities to follow the guidelines set forth by the UN Committee on Human Rights and follow their international obligations in the field of democracy. The event was attended by human rights activists, members of journalists' unions, heads of independent and opposition media, as well as representatives of the embassies of several countries and offices of international organizations.

The City Court of Buynaksk has sentenced Gadjimurad Gasanov to 3 years and 8 months of imprisonment in a general security colony on charges of involvement in the armed underground and possession of firearms.

The Sochi Administration sent an application to the Administration of the Krasnodar Region for coordinating the citizens' protest zone. The proposed venue for protest actions is the park in Khosta, located in the street named after 50 years of the USSR, Evgeny Kuzhelev, an employee of the PR department of the Sochi City Administration, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

More than 1500 people gathered in Tbilisi on December 11 at a rally in support of Ukraine's European integration. Because of the march – the column was 200 meters long – the motor traffic in Rustaveli Avenue was stopped.

Magomed Orudjev, the Public Prosecutor of the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala, was detained today by law enforcers, said a source from the district prosecutor's office.

Today, a regular session of the court that considers the case of the "Muslim wedding", held in the Dagestani city of Kizlyar, has completed examination of witnesses and watching the video from the place of detention of the wedding cortege.

The Russian Parliamentary Ethics Commission has condemned the statements of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the head of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), about Northern Caucasus in the "Poedinok" (Duel) TV programme. The commission has issued a warning against the use of such rhetoric methods by an MP.

The faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) of the Volgograd Regional Duma intends to start collecting signatures for a distrust resolution to Governor Bozhenov, with the aim to bring it into the agenda of the December 19 session of the regional parliament, said Nikolai Parshin, the faction leader.

The village of Samur, Magaramkent District of Dagestan, hosted an unauthorized protest against the construction of a water intake station on the Samur River. After a scuffle with the police, 19 protesters were taken to the local police station. Other participants refused to disperse until the police released the detainees.

On December 9, the House of Russians Abroad named after Solzhenitsyn in Moscow hosted the awarding ceremony of the medal of the Russian Ombudsman "Hurry to Do Good". The 24 -year-old resident of Dagestan Marat Rakhmetov who saved in the suburb of Moscow two drowning schoolgirls but died himself was awarded posthumously.

The Russian organizers of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi have promised to set up special areas for holding protests during the Winter Olympic Games, said Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The Dagestani media festival was opened on December 10 in Makhachkala under the motto "Read the press in your native language". The event was attended by about 500 people, who discussed the prospects of the national press.

A former head of the administration of one of the settlements of the Naur District of Chechnya was fined by 110,000 roubles on charges of fraud and abuse of office and deprived of the right to take managerial posts for two years.

The attack committed in the city of Chegem by unidentified criminals on the car with employees of the local department of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as UFSIN) resulted in killing two persons. One more wounded person was taken to hospital, investigators report.

Today, in the city of Chegem, unidentified persons attacked employees of the local Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as UFSIN). The shelling from automatic firearms killed one of them; two others were taken to hospital, an investigator told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

A march to mark the International Human Rights Day was held today in Yerevan. Its participants have stated widespread violations of human rights in Armenia and demanded to change the country's ruling regime.

The mother of Shamil Ramazanov, who was detained on December 9 in Makhachkala, has filed an application to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" asking for help in defending the rights of her son, which were violated by power agents during a search and detention, said Elena Denisenko, the local employee of the HRC.

According to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), Magomed Khalitov, the leader of the local terrorist grouping, has been killed as a result of the special operation in the Shamil District in Dagestan.

Viviane Reding, a Vice-President of the European Commission and the EU Commissioner for Justice, has refused to go to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, because of the persecution of minorities by Russian authorities. She announced her decision to boycott the Games on her page on the Twitter.