News

After the presidential election oppositional forces in Nagorno-Karabakh intend to organize themselves and go on struggle, Masis Maiylyan, Chairman of Social Council for foreign policy and security of Nagorno-Karabakh, declared. The need for real opposition has boiled up in the community, sociologist David Karabekyan considers.

The meeting of the lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova, who is defending Anvar Guseinov, a resident of Dagestan, who complained that employees of the Khasavyurt ROVD (District Interior Division) had beaten him, with the local Minister of Internal Affairs has been scheduled for July 26.

Roland Kelekhsaev, the leader of the People's Party of South Ossetia, blames the local Ministry of Justice of biased attitude and expresses his dissatisfaction with the statements of the Minister Murat Vaneev, who has treated the situation around the party as their internal conflict. This was the topic of Mr Kelekhsaev's letter to the Minister submitted on July 23.

As declared today by Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), the decision to introduce the state of emergency in connection with heavy rains in Krymsk was falsified: the document about the allegedly made decision was drawn up in the morning on July 7.

Today, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Georgia has expressed protest to organizers of the Olympic Games in London, because in the data on two athletes of the Russian national team, posted on the official website of Olympic Games, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are indicated as the territory of Russia.

At the first hearing on the merits of Rasul Mirzaev's case, held today at the Zamoskvoretsky District Court, the prosecutor Yulia Zotova has announced the indictment, followed by questioning of the victims – Tatiana and Alexander Agafonov and their daughter Olga Agafonova.

Zalimgeri Khagasov, the Mayor of the city of Nalchik, plans to challenge at the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria the decision to suspend him from office. Now, Zalimgeri Khagasov is officially on the labour vacation.

Oleg Shein, the former candidate for the position of Mayor of Astrakhan, received the decisions of the Trusov and Kirov District Courts, pronouncing full dismissal of the claims for cancellation of the election, held on March 4.

The Media Rights Institute (MRI) disseminated the report on the situation inAzerbaijanwith the freedom of expression in the first half of 2012, which indicated the deterioration of the situation in that sphere. Among the evidence of negative trends, the report mentions growing number of imprisoned journalists, introduction of restrictive amendments to the legislation, increase of the facts of physical and psychological pressure on journalists.

The decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of theRepublicofKalmykiaobliged the Republic's Children's Hospital to pay to parents of children, who in 1988 were infected with HIV, 300,000 roubles in compensation for moral damage.

The Parliament of Georgia does not intend to extend the period of the mandatory inclusion of news programmes of the Georgian TV Companies to a package, offered to TV viewers by cable TV operators. This was announced by David Bakradze, Speaker of the Parliament. He has noted that the state cannot constantly intervene in private business.

In the flat region of the Shelkovskaya District of Chechnya, about 6000 hectares of farmland are affected by plagues of locusts. A motor delta plane is mobilized for control of pests of the farmland.

The first court session on the merits against Rasul Mirzaev, World Champion in Mixed Martial Arts, after whose strike Ivan Agafonov, a 19-year-old Moscow resident, died, is scheduled for July 25, and it will question the victims Tatiana and Alexander Agafonov. The parents of the deceased young man gave testimonies during the preliminary investigation, and then they would voice their position in the courtroom. They did not accept Rasul Mirzaev's apologies and did not change their attitude to the case. This was stated by Oksana Mikhalkina, the representative of the parents of the deceased young man.

This morning, inKrasnodar, in front of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) in theKrasnodarTerritory, representatives of the public organization "Prostye Lyudi" (Ordinary People), held a picket to support Pavel Cherevatov, the head of the Abinsk Human Rights Centre, who was serving his sentence. The participants of the protest action were met by representatives of the Regional FSIN Department, including Yuri Kulik, Chief of the Regional FSIN Department.

Beskhanum Gasanova, the resident of thevillage of Chernyaevka of the Kizlyar District, the mother of Shakhban Gasanov, who on July 21 was detained by local law enforcement agents for possession of weapons, appealed to the public organization "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy) and asked to protect her family from persecution of power agents. According to a source at the ROVD (District Interior Division) of the Kizlyar District, Shakhban Gasanov is a member of the armed group.

Last week, from July 16 to July 22, 2012, at least 21 persons suffered in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of calculations of the "Caucasian Knot" based on own materials of the edition and information from other open sources. Of them, 12 persons perished and 9 more were wounded.

Start of the sacred Muslim month of Ramadan; presidential elections in Nagorno-Karabakh; mass brawl, a serious road accident and election of Mayor of Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol Territory; Shein loses trials in district courts of Astrakhan on abolition of Mayor election; start of consideration of Rasul Mirzaev's case, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of July 16-22, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Zaur Djalilov, an employee of the Akhvakh ROVD (District Interior Division), who is accused of murdering Imadibir Makhiev, 16, an 11th form pupil from the village of Karata, Akhvakh District, was suspended from his work for the period of investigation.

The court in Yerevan has dismissed a complaint lodged by the advocate of Vardan Oskanyan, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the founder of the "Civilitas" Foundation, against the decision of the National Security Service (NSS) to initiate a criminal case against the Foundation.

On July 22, two out of three candidates, who ran for the Chlous constituency No. 26 in the Ochamchira District of Abkhazia, won most of the votes and passed over to the second round, namely: the businessman Beslan Butba, the leader of the Party of Economic Development of Abkhazia; and Beslan Tarba, the deputy head of the State Administration of Abkhazia for Transports and Communications.