News

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has introduced three candidates for the position of the Chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia, including Tamar Zhvaniya, who was nominated by a number of Georgian NGOs. The CEC is to elect the Chair within five days.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia has destroyed only a small part of the unlawfully collected archive with materials about the private lives of Georgian citizens, and the fate of the remaining materials will be decide by members of the specially established commission. This was reported by Lasha Tugushi, a member of the commission.

On September 5, in Nagorno-Karabakh, a group of young people posted a statement in the social network "Facebook" in the group "Artsakhyaner". In their statement, young people have expressed their concern about the Armenia's decision to join the Customs Union (CU) initiated by Russia. The statement emphasizes that the decision "endangers the sovereignty of Armenia."

The outcome of the presidential election in Azerbaijan is obvious: incumbent President Ilham Aliev will retain the position for the third term. This opinion was expressed by experts and political analysts, questioned by the "Caucasian Knot".

Ali Insanov, ex-Minister of Public Health, who is serving a prison sentence in Azerbaijan, has filed a complaint to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) about the failure of the Government of Azerbaijan to fulfil the judgment pronounced with regard to him the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This was reported by Togrul Babaev, an advocate of Ali Insanov.

Today is the deadline for delivering signature lists for registration of presidential candidates to the CEC of Azerbaijan. In total, the CEC has approved 21 candidates; three of them are already registered; 11 others have chances to get registered as they had timely submitted subscription lists.

Today, the Lenin District Court of Makhachkala has chosen the freedom restriction measure for Arslan Durushev, a local resident, in the form of an eight-say detention, his wife said.

Today in Dagestan, power agents detained Akbar Murtazaliev, born in 1992, a resident of the village of Shamkhal. His relatives have informed the Dagestan Regional Public Organization (DRPO) "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy) about the detention. They contacted the DRPO by phone.

The lawyers of the Dagestani Branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) are preparing a lawsuit trying to invalidate the results of the elections of Deputies of the Derbent City Council, Makhmud Makhmudov, the First Secretary of the above Branch has reported.

The details of how surveillance of Anna Politkovskaya was organized were disclosed at the today's court session by Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who had been earlier convicted for Politkovskaya's murder. However, Murad Musaev, the advocate for the suffered party, believes that Pavlyuchenkov has voiced out not the whole information known to him.

Today, the prosecution has spoken in debates at the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) in the case of the attack on Nalchik and presented evidence on the episode with the attack on the DPS (road and post service) "Khasanya". This is the last episode of the criminal case; then, the defence will be given the floor to announce its position.

The pro-governmental political party "Amtsakhara" and the Coordinating Council of Oppositional Political Parties and Public Organizations have demanded from the Abkhazian law enforcers to find those responsible for the murder of the Russian diplomat Dmitry Vishernyov committed in Sukhumi.

Voting at local elections in all regions of Southern Russia, except for KBR; election of heads of Ingushetia and Dagestan; mourning events in North Ossetia on the ninth anniversary of the terror act in Beslan; termination of criminal prosecution of journalist Tsagoev in KBR; start of considering the terror act in the marketplace in Vladikavkaz; visit of Serzh Sargsyan to Russia that ended with declaration of Armenia's intent to join the Customs Union, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of August 26-September 1, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The health status Azamat Archakov, a father of many children, who began his endless hunger strike on September 3 in Ingushetia, has deteriorated. According to his story, he feels weak, but he will continue his protest, because state officials fail to fulfil their promises.

In the period from September 2 to September 8, 2013, at least 10 persons fell victim to the armed conflict that is still on in Northern Caucasus; of them, eight persons were killed and two more were wounded. These are the results of the calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

On September 8, in Moscow, in the Great Hall of the Music Conservatory, a charity concert in memory of murdered journalists and a ceremony of granting the National Award "Tuning Fork" named after Anna Politkovskaya were organized and held by the Russian Union of Journalists. The event was attended by more than 1500 persons.

According to the preliminary information, the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party has gained more than 86% of the votes at the elections of members of the Legislative Assembly of Chechnya. This was reported by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Chechnen Republic.

Elena Samoshina, a mother of many children from Volgograd, has stopped her hunger strike after the proposal received by staff members of the reception room of Vladimir Putin to come to Moscow to present her demands to the reception office of the Russian President.

On September 9, the Lenin District Court will pronounce the pre-trial restriction measure to Arslan Durushev, a resident of Makhachkala, who was detained by law enforcement bodies after the search of his apartment in the residential settlement of Reduktorny of Makhachkala. This was reported by a source at the police of Makhachkala.

Today, by a majority of vote, members of the People's Assembly of Dagestan have elected Ramazan Abdulatipov the leader of the republic. The extraordinary session was attended by 88 out of 90 MPs. 86 MPs voted for Ramazan Abdulatipov, and 2 MPs voted for Ummupazil Omarova.