News

In the Volgograd Region, 15 officers of the regional Department of the Russian Federal Correction Service (known as "UFSIN") have been brought to "strict disciplinary responsibility" after VIP cells intended for crime bosses were found in Colony No. 12.

Pyatimat Khashagulgova, the wife of Issa Khashagulgov, who is suspected of involvement in the terror act committed in Vladikavkaz and is currently kept in SIZO (pre-trial prison), said that she was not allowed to meet her husband.

Two documentaries devoted to the life of convicts in Rostov region became prize-winners of the First St. Petersburg international festival "Nadezhda" ("Hope"). The authors are convicts serving penalty in the colonies of the region.

A hunger strike of eight builders of a trimmers' team who were reconditioning neurology unit of Timashevsk district hospital is going on in the town of Timashevsk, Krasnodar region. The workers demand from "Yug-S" company to settle accounts with the team for the work they have done.

The Senate of Mexico has not adopted any resolutions in connection with the events in the town of Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh. This was explained by representatives of the Senate of Mexico with the addition that two closing paragraphs of the document expressing the opinion of one of the committees were read out at a plenary session of the Senate.

Georgy Sadovich, veteran of the war in Afghanistan, came out on a single-person picket declaring a hunger strike near the building of the President's Plenipotentiary mission in Southern Federal Okrug (SFO). The picketer demands to provide him with dwelling which, according to him, is due to him by law.

The upper house of the Parliament of Mexico recognized the tragic events that took place on February 25-26, 1992, in Khodjaly town of Nagorno-Karabakh as genocide. This was reported by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

In the course of the election campaign on elections of deputies to the Russian State Duma, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has identified more than two thousand violations, including 96 ones in the Stavropol Territory. Investigators conduct nine inspections in different regions of the country, including in the south of Russia, to investigate the complaints about falsification of voting results. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the voting results at 21 electoral precincts were cancelled due to violations.

The Moscow City Court refused to release Rustam Makhmudov, accused of murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", from the custody.

In the Belorechenskaya juvenile correctional facility, no proper educational and psychological work with convicts is carried out, and that was the main cause of the incident, during which 22 teenagers cut their arms. This was revealed by the inspection of the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory.

Today, in Tskhinvali, Alan Kochiev, ex-candidate for South Ossetian presidency, was released on the recognizance not to leave. This was reported by the Prosecutor's Office of South Ossetia.

The preliminary agreement between Georgia and South Ossetia on the transfer of persons under investigation was reached at the today's meeting within the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention. This was announced by Merab Chigoev, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of President of South Ossetia on post-conflict reconciliation.

On December 20, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held - in the city of Gudermes (Chechnya) - a meeting attended by federal ministers and heads of the North-Caucasian region, dedicated to the region's development. Local residents report that enhanced security measures were introduced in the city on the occasion.

The Moscow resident Inga Kharitonova, the mother of the student Gleb Kharitonov, who in mid-October participated in a fight in the Moscow metro with immigrants from the Caucasus, has decided to leave Russia. She states that she will go to Latvia, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin answered her letter during the "hot line".

Today, near the Palace of the President of Georgia in Tbilisi, the Labour Party held a disobedience action named "Let's spoil Mikhail Saakashvili's birthday".

Limitation of financing of the North-Caucasian regions contributes to serious complications of the situation in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and in the entire country, up to a war. This was declared by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, when he commented on the recent increase in nationalistic slogans of "Stop feeding the Caucasus."

Working and ex-Director of one of the state enterprises of Chechnya were sentenced to one and two years of custody for non-payment of wages to their employees.

Yesterday evening, December, 20, Residents of the settlement of Ali-Yurt in Ingushetia were cut off power supply once again. Local residents state that such outages now happen in the settlement practically every day. As a result, people cannot use electrical appliances, including heaters, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Last night a thirty-seven-year-old Vadim Djioev, owner of "Регах" restaurant, was shot down in Vladikavkaz. His friend who was nearby got wounded, a source in law enforcement bodies of North Ossetia reported.

On December, 20, supporters of Alla Djioeva, ex-candidate for the Presidency of South Ossetia, held a picket in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in South Ossetia planned earlier. The participants declared that they had come to express their protest against non-fulfilment of the agreements between the authorities of the republic and the opposition and support Vladimir Putin at the presidential election in Russia. No more than 50 people were present at the picket.