News

The office of Oleg Shein, a member of the "Spraveldivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party and an ex-candidate for the Mayor of the city, has reported that the political hunger strike against the outcomes of the election of the Mayor of Astrakhan has now 40 participants.

Today, Shirinbadji Rzaeva and members of her family were evicted from their apartment in Baku. This happened after she expressed yesterday, on April 22, her strong criticism at the oppositional rally against the leadership of Azerbaijan and the Baku Mayoralty for massive violations of citizens' property rights.

Law enforcement authorities of Volgograd have detained two young men, one of whom stuck a swastika sticker to his T-shirt and went to the Easter Sacred Procession, while the other was disseminating leaflets with Hitler's portrait on the dictator's birthday.

Oleg Shein's lawsuit on cancellation of the outcomes of electing Mayor of Astrakhan and his demand to release his supporters as precondition for his quitting the hunger strikes; thousands-strong oppositional action in Baku; demand of Evkurov's resignation declared at a public conference held in the republic; inauguration of new president of South Ossetia, suicide of suspects of attempt on president of Abkhazia; opening of NGO resource centre in Grozny, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of April 16-22, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On April, 21, non-governmental organization “Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of the citizen’s rights and freedoms” held a meeting in Nalchik authorized by the municipal authorities. Over one hundred people gathered at the meeting. They demanded from the authorities to take steps to prevent escalation of violence in the republic.

In the evening of April, 22, the capital of Armenia was officially granted the title of “World Book Capital-2012” from Buenos Aires.

On April, 22, a meeting with about one thousand participants was held in the settlement of Karata, Ahvakh district. During the action its participants demanded punishment for Zaur Djalilov, officer of Ahvakh Department of Interior Affairs. It is suspected that on April, 16, he shot into a sixteen-years-old local resident’s head.

Public events dated to the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations", which covered Cossacks, were held on April 21 in Krasnodar.

Several buses with special agents have arrived this morning in two auls (villages) located in the Krasnodar Territory near the city of Armavir.

After a 6-year-long embargo, Georgian drinks get back to the Russian market, namely, the lemonade "Zedazeni" produced by the recently opened "Georgian Beer Company", said its Commercial Director Kakha Paichadze.

The ex-candidate for Mayor of Astrakhan Oleg Shein has announced the conditions, under which he will quit his hunger strike: he will stop it immediately upon release of four protesters. Mr Shein has emphasized that the main reason to stop the hunger strike was the statement of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) about revealed violations during the election of the city Mayor.

In the city of Baksan, about a hundred people blocked a bridge on the federal highway. One of the protesters has explained that people were outraged with the fact that they could not get the body of the local resident, who was shot dead last night.

Today, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the oppositional coalition "Georgian Dream", has founded a new party – "Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia".

On April 20, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted amendments to the country's Electoral Code (EC).

The participants of the forum "Dagestan to Dagestani people" have proposed to set up a special call centre for victims of actions of power agents. The forum was attended by about 300 delegates, who represented public organizations from all over the country.

Experts of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) have noted violations of migrant workers' rights; these migrants are engaged in preparing Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. They also fixed violations related to alienation of land plots and resettlement for construction of Olympic objects and infrastructure, violations of the freedom of speech, and pressure on journalists and civil activists.

On April 19, the "Armavia" Airline completed a flight Yerevan-Milan-Yerevan, where 50 Italian tourists were the passengers.

In Azerbaijan, Oktai Gyulalyev, the coordinator of the headquarters of the civil organization "Kura", whose term of administrative arrest had completed, was charged of a crime. In particular, the civil organization activist is charged of "inciting to riots". The court decision left him under arrest again.

On April 18, Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, presented at the Council of Federation, a report on the results of 2011: the Ombudsman received 11.9 percent of the total number of complaints from the Southern Federal District (SFD), 5.5 percent from the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD). The greatest number of complaints from citizens of the Russian Federation was devoted to violations of civil rights and freedoms.

Criminal prosecution against representatives of the services of the "Domodedovo" Airport, which, according to the investigators' assumption, failed to take measures to prevent the terror act in January of 2011, was terminated. This was reported by Vladimir Markin, Spokesman of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).