News

The "Zharangutyun" (Heritage) Party has expressed – at its today's congress – its support its leader Raffi Ovannisyan at the upcoming presidential election, who had announced his intention to run for the post by using the procedure of self-nomination.

The party named "Orinats Erkir" (Country of Law) will support the incumbent Serzh Sargsyan at the presidential election on February 18, Arthur Bagdasaryan the leader of the party and the current Secretary of the National Security Council, said today.

The 2013 budget of the City Municipality of Gori, Georgia, has funds to restore the monument to Stalin.

The questions asked on behalf of the newspaper "Kadyrov's Way" at a press conference of Vladimir Putin had been carefully thought over and were purely neutral; while the decision to close the newspaper was, most likely, caused by journalists' mockeries over the name of the paper, said Bilkhis Dudaeva, the editor-in-chief of the now closed edition.

Two non-profit organizations (NPOs) from Dagestan, "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights" and "Fighter for Justice", have announced their withdrawal from the "United Caucasian Forum", explaining their decision by "poor coordination of the Forum," and disagreement with the organizers on some issues.

Today, the trial has been finalized of the third group of defendants, accused of riots in the city of Guba. Two out of seven defendants received real prison terms; the remaining five were sentenced conditionally.

Aram Sargsyan, the leader of the oppositional "Republic" Party and a former member of the "Armenian National Congress" (ANC), said he would not run for the post of the country's president. Today, the congress of the party has decided to refuse to participate in the presidential election in Armenia.

Suren Gazaryan, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", said that he left Russia fearing a guilty verdict in the case about the incident at the "Putin's Palace".

On the eve of December 21, some residents of the regions of Northern Caucasus feared the predicted "doomsday" and prepared for it; however, it was not of a mass character. Muslim clerics, while noting that Islam has a concept of the "judgment day", said that there is no evidence of this event.

The NGO named "Union of Societies of Georgian-Russia Relations: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and Georgian figures of culture are setting up an initiative group for settlement of Georgian-Russian relations, in order to revive the tradition of joint projects in the sphere of education and sciences.

Today, court marshals, a representative of the administration of the Sovietskiy District and policemen appeared at No. 14 Amurskaya Street in Astrakhan, aiming to evict the Porfiriev family out of their house.

Beslan Tsechoev, a villager of Sagopshi, Malgobek District of Ingushetia, was detained by the police without explanation, his relatives assert. They fear that the man will be exposed to illegal methods of physical pressure, noting that earlier similar cases had already happened.

On December 20, 130 employees of the medical centre in the city of Telavi went on a strike demanding to pay their wage arrears.

A soldier from the Georgian contingent has disappeared in Afghanistan; searches are fruitless.

Grant Bagratyan, a member of the oppositional parliamentary faction "Armenian National Congress" (ANC) and the former Prime Minister, has announced, on his Facebook page, his intention to take part in the presidential election. Bagratyan also said that he would suspend his cooperation with the ANC in order not to hamper the organization.

Ruslan Eshugaov, the chair of the Adaptation Commission of former militants in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), has promised, when meeting relatives of convicted militants, to help in their conditional early relief (CER).

The Chechen newspaper "Kadyrov's Way", which was closed today after the press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was initially presented by local officials at a celebration ceremony of the 60th birthday of the late Akhmad Kadyrov, the former head of the region, in August 2011.

About a thousand supporters of the party "United National Movement" have held a protest in Tbilisi against the arrests of Nicka Gvaramiya, Director General of "Rustavi-2", as well as the former Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri, Director General of the Energy Company "Telasi" Devi Kandelaki and former Deputy Minister of Economy Kakha Dameniya.

The murder of the TV presenter Kazbek Gekkiev did not entail any mass resignation of employees of the State TV and Radio Company (STRC) "Kabardino-Balkaria". To date, only three out of one hundred and eighty employees have submitted their voluntarily resignation applications, said Kamal Abdullaev, Deputy Director of the STRC, which is a branch of the All-Russian TV and Radio Company.

The session of the Tbilisi City Court, scheduled for December 19, on the case of Akhmed Chataev, a native of Chechnya and a Russian citizen, who was detained in a special operation in Lopota Gorge, did not take place due to the failure of the prosecutor to summon his witnesses.