News

The Chechen law enforcement agencies have revealed the causes of a road accident, involving a military truck "Ural" in the north of the republic, which killed a local resident and injured seven power agents, that were security forces - is clear ice and wrong actions of the driver of the passenger car.

To determine the fates of persons disappeared and kidnapped during the war, Chechnya started working on collection of DNA from their relatives. According to official information, during the two military campaigns in Chechnya, lists of missing and kidnapped people contain about 5000 persons; however, according to human rights activists, the figure could be much higher.

According to Anzor Kushkhabiev, Ph.D. in Historical sciences, the author of the monographs "Circassians in Syria", "Circassian Diaspora in Arab World", "Essay on history of Circassian Diaspora", the situation of Syrian Circassians is aggravated by the fact that they do not actively support the ruling regime of Syria and the opposition forces.

In 2011, the birth rate in Chechnya was again significantly higher than the Russian national average, said the local Ministry of Public Health (MPH). In parallel with the birth rate growth, doctors state decrease of infant mortality against previous years. Meanwhile, a number of local women complain of corruption at maternity hospitals; however, the MPH does not confirm this information.

On February 1, the South-Ossetian party plans to deliver five Georgian citizens detained for illegal crossing the border to its Georgian counterpart, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by a source from the KGB (Committee for State Security) of South Ossetia.

More than 70 senators and 50 members of the lower house of the French Parliament have addressed their petition to the French Constitutional Board asking to cancel the recently adopted law on criminalization of genocide denial.

The Tver Court of Moscow has shortened down to six months the term of corrective works, earlier awarded to Dmitry Putenikhin, an activist "The Other Russia", for splashing water into the face of the prosecutor, said Ekaterina Ilyina, the press secretary of the court.

Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have visited the Azerbaijani prisoner of war kept in Nagorno-Karabakh, Shakhla Gakhramanova, the press secretary of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan, said today.

On January 30, over 50 persons gathered in Akhmad Kadyrov Avenue in Grozny with a demand to have their salary debts paid.

Today, in the evening, near the monument to fighters for the victory of Soviet Power in the Bratskiy Garden in Astrakhan, defenders of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation have held their action. Despite the cold weather and strong wind, the action was attended not only by permanent participants, but by new people.

Public prosecutor's office of Rostov region sanctioned the indictment on the criminal case against Seiran Mkhitaryan, ex-Deputy Chief of operational detective unit of Department of Interior Affairs in Rostov-on-Don, and Armen Yegiazaryan, ex-Chief of operational detective unit of the same Department of Interior Affairs. The policemen are accused of extortion of a bribe to a sum of 1,5 million rubles.

Employees of government-financed organizations of Sochi complain that their management makes them get absentee ballots for the election of President of the Russian Federation. The management of organizations and territorial election committees (TEC) deny their involvement in bringing pressure on them.

A group of convicts in Georgia appealed to President of the USA Barack Obama asking him to help in release of political prisoners. Similar appeals were sent to President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and Head of EU Mission in Georgia Philip Dimitrov.

A serviceman of a military unit located in the settlement of Balajary, Baku, died from wounding he got as a result of careless weapon handling, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reported.

Adoption of the French Senate of the law on criminalizing the denial of genocides, including the Armenian genocide, will play a major role in the overall process of international recognition of that fact. The law will also have an impact on European politics in general. This opinion was announced by Armenian politicians and experts.

Today, the Saratov Garrison Military Court suspended consideration of the criminal case against soldier Andrei Popov, accused of desertion, who had earlier claimed that he had been kept in slavery Dagestan. At present, Andrei Popov is in hospital after undergoing of three operations.

Problem of residents of the village of Khrakh-Uba, one of the two dwelling settlements, which remained in the territory of Azerbaijan after the revision of the borders of the former Soviet Union, is not solved. This was reported by Arif Kerimov, the head of the Federal Lezgin National and Cultural Autonomy. According to Evgeny Kozmin, Consul of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Azerbaijan, residents of the village Uryan-Uba accepted Azerbaijani citizenship and continue to live in the village as citizens of Azerbaijan, and problems of residents of the village of Khrakh-Uba arose from the fact that almost all residents left the village.

Summit of presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Sochi on Karabakh settlement; presentation in Moscow of the Human Rights Watch report on human rights violations; end of inquiry into terror act in "Domodedovo" Airport; decision of the Russian Supreme Court on Sviridov's murder in Moscow; adaptation commission for militants set up in Kabardino-Balkaria, - look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of January 23-29, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In Moscow, the materials of the investigation into the case of the murder of anti-fascist Ilya Dzhaparidze were presented to parties for studying.

The capital of Armenia hosted a protest action against the transfer of the demolished kiosks from Abovyan Street to the territory of the park, located in the area of Mashtots Avenue.