News

The decision with effect from January 1, 2014, to change the status of the Baku Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from a diplomatic mission to the "OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku" is a limitation of the activities of the organization in support of democracy in Azerbaijan and a concession to the government.

Today, at the building of Yerevan Mayoralty, 50 persons continued their endless sit-in strike with a demand to cancel the decision of the Mayoralty to raise public transport fares and dismiss Genrik Navasardyan, the head of the transportation department of the Mayoralty, and Misak Ambartsumyan, the director of the LLC "Yerevantrans".

The court session on the claim of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" against the actions of the Prosecutor's Office, which had demanded that the Centre should get registered as a foreign agent, initially scheduled for July 31, has been postponed till September 13, the HRC reports.

Georgy Margvelashvily, the presidential candidate from the ruling coalition "Georgian Dream", has rejected the proposal of his opponent from the pro-presidential oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) Party David Bakradze to hold the debate one-to-one.

The trial on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", that takes place at the Moscow City Court (MCC), has been postponed until July 31 because of the absence of Murad Musaev, the advocate of the defendant Djabrail Makhmudov.

Announcement of Georgian presidential candidate by the "United National Movement"; attack on rabbi and resignation of government in Dagestan; start of trial at the Moscow City Court of Anna Politkovskaya's murder case; protests in Yerevan against increase of public transport fares; hunger strike of doctors at Stavropol Children Hospital and reinstatement of its sacked chief physician; Jewish ethnographic expedition over cities of Southern Russia, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of July 22-28, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On Sunday, in Makhachkala, a rally against tyranny of secret services was held. It was attended by about 100 persons, including relatives of Shamil Abdulaev and Shamil Kadyragaev, who were kidnapped on June 6. The relatives of the kidnapped persons claimed that law enforcers had been involved in kidnapping them.

In North Ossetia, law enforcers impede the work of the defence of Arthur Podgorny, a 20-year-old resident of Ingushetia, and torture him to confess to murder of a man. This was stated by the advocate of the young man. In turn, the law enforcement bodies deny the information.

Public hearings on the construction of a hotel in Predmostnaya Square were cancelled because of the project's non-compliance with the town planning regulations. This was reported by Irina Solovyova, Acting Mayor of Volgograd. Natalia Latyshevskaya, a deputy of the regional Duma, started the work on a new draft law for public hearings.

On the eve of the presidential election, in Azerbaijan, the project "Map of Public Monitoring" is created, with the help of which voters will be able to report violations committed during the pre-election campaign and during the voting itself. This was reported by Anar Mamedli, one of the organizers of the project.

The Muslim community of the Nasyr-Kort mosque has addressed the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov and the broad local public stating that recently the republic's authorities and the official clergy had been pressing the imam of the mosque Khamzat Chumakov.

As suggested by Kakha Kakhishvili, the head of the Centre for Election Studies, David Bakradze, the presidential candidate of the oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) Party, was nominated by Mikhail Saakashvili.

The European Parliament will decide whether to send its observers to the presidential election in Azerbaijan in September, said Marjory van den Broeke, the head of the press service of the European Parliament.

A rally under the slogan: "Decent life to war children!" organized by the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) was held in Volgograd on July 27.

As stated by Alimamed Nuriev, the head of the research fund "Constitution", engaged in corruption issues, mainly low-level officials are brought to criminal liability for corruption in Azerbaijan.

According to Aisha Selimkhanova, an employee of the Dagestani Regional Public Organization "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy), relatives of Kochubek Kochubekov, who was killed in a shootout in Makhachkala, claim inconsistencies in the data released about the shootout by power agents.

On July 26, the Basmanny Court of Moscow extended the arrest of the dismissed Mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov.

The forum "Barcamp Artsakh 2013", held in Nagorno-Karabakh on July 24-28, has involved 70 bloggers, IT and media professionals.

The Investigating Committee of Sochi has opened a criminal case against the builder Mardiros Demerchyan on suspicion of false denunciation.

Abdusamad Gamidov, the new chairman of the government of Dagestan, has never "meddled in politics" and will not try to become the first person in the country, the lawyer Biyakai Magomedov, the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Chernovik," is sure.