News

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.

Till the end of 2011, 91 families of the militaries who perished in the Karabakh conflict will receive apartments in Stepanakert, said Narine Astsatryan, Minister of Social Care of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The victims of the terror act committed in the Dubrovka Theatre Centre in Moscow will file new lawsuits claiming compensation against Moscow authorities after the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), said Igor Trunov, the lawyer for the victims.

Today, all the 110 Georgian MPs present at the sitting have voted, in the first reading, for the draft of the new Electoral Code.

In the Moscow Regional Court, at the trial of assistance to terrorism, the prosecution demands to deprive Apti and Aishat Magmadov of freedom for 9 and 5 years respectively. This was announced by Musa Khadisov, the defendants' advocate.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ordered Russia to pay compensation in the range of 9000-66,000 euros to the victims of the terror act in the Dubrovka Theatre Centre in Moscow, the press service of the ECtHR has reported.