News

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Russian demands from Sweden to ban the operation of the Sweden-based website "Kavkaz-Centre" and states that the extremist organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir" operates in this country.

On the eve of the New Year, a debate has onset in Dagestan about celebrations of the start of the year. Some people say that they plan to celebrate, and see nothing wrong with this holiday. Others believe that the New Year is a pagan holiday and should be celebrated by Muslims.

In the Moscow City Court, at the trial on the murder of Colonel Yuri Budanov, the defence has presented the results of the examination that had failed to reveal any biological traces of the defendant Yusup Temerkhanov on the exhibits, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

According to experts, today some 56-58 Russians are serving their terms in Georgian prisons. At least six of them are political prisoners, asserts Besik Pipiya, the head of the Tbilisi representative office of the RIA "Novosti".

The Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili is not going to run for the post of the president. He said this during a today's press conference.

In Dagestan, it is possible to take out dead bodies from the morgue for burial without certificates issued by the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) of Dagestan. The lawyer Ziyavdin Uvaisov treats this practice as illegal.

Today, the defence of the figurant in the murder case of the journalist of "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya has appealed against the sentence of the Moscow City Court (MCC) against Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who received 11 years of colony, said Karen Nersisyan, the lawyer of the convict.

Launch of reconstructed Baksan HPP in Kabardino-Balkaria; departure from Russia of an activist-ecologist from the Krasnodar Territory with the aim to seek political asylum in another country; scandal around the change of the name of a district newspaper in Chechnya and decision of the ECtHR on disappearance of eight residents of the republic; signing an agreement on simplified entry visas for citizens of Armenia to EU countries; protest action in the context of the murder of a resident of Nevinnomyssk, resignation of Mayor of Zheleznovodsk and two ministers of the Stavropol Territory, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of December 17-23, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The Parliament of Georgia has adopted the law "On Amnesty". After lengthy discussions and debates, it was voted for by 80 MPs. Under the law more than 3000 inmates will leave jails, including those earlier recognized as political prisoners by the supreme legislative body of the country.

Muslim lawyers from Russian regions are going to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with a request to check the resolution of the government of the Stavropol Territory about the requirements for school clothes and appearance of pupils at educational institutions for the compliance of the resolution to the Russian Constitution.

Today, Volgograd has hosted a picket in defence of prisoners' labour rights. The protesters demanded to provide full employment opportunities to current and former prisoners.

Today, workers of the oil terminal in Kulevi Port have gone on a strike demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

Today, the Tbilisi City Court has appointed a bail of 30,000 laris as a precondition for Nika Gvaramiya, Director General of the "Rustavi-2" TV Company, to go at large. A similar decision was made in relation to other figurants in the case of bribery and forgery of documents.

Boris Stikhin, an activist of the regional branch of the International Union of Anarchists, and Maria Turovets, an activist of the public campaign in defence of Volgograd embankment, held an action aimed at checking policemen's documents, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

A rally of residents of the emergency house No. 3 in Petropavlovskaya Street in Sochi was held from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the building of the Adler district administration in the format of a meeting with officials. The meeting brought together about 20 people, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Irakli Okruashvili, the ex-Defence Minister, who is serving his term in the Tbilisi prison, has stopped, as well as his fellow prisoners, the hunger strike. This news was spread by the "Georgian Party".

The "Zharangutyun" (Heritage) Party has expressed – at its today's congress – its support its leader Raffi Ovannisyan at the upcoming presidential election, who had announced his intention to run for the post by using the procedure of self-nomination.

The party named "Orinats Erkir" (Country of Law) will support the incumbent Serzh Sargsyan at the presidential election on February 18, Arthur Bagdasaryan the leader of the party and the current Secretary of the National Security Council, said today.

The 2013 budget of the City Municipality of Gori, Georgia, has funds to restore the monument to Stalin.

The questions asked on behalf of the newspaper "Kadyrov's Way" at a press conference of Vladimir Putin had been carefully thought over and were purely neutral; while the decision to close the newspaper was, most likely, caused by journalists' mockeries over the name of the paper, said Bilkhis Dudaeva, the editor-in-chief of the now closed edition.