News

Suicidal terror act in Ingushetia; murder of believers in a mosque in Dagestan; protests on the Day of Quds in Azerbaijan; forty days after tragedy in Krymsk; continued investigation of Mirzaev's case; spread of ASF in Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of August 13-19, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Today in Khasavyurt, unidentified persons have committed an armed attack on a Shiite mosque community, resulting in six people injured, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Republic of Dagestan reports.

Today, Nalchik has hosted the stage of the "Caucasian Games" for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR). The competitions were attended by 13 teams from each of the municipal districts of the republic and the city of Nalchik.

The participants of the rally in the village of Bezengi, where the basic demand was to oblige the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria to fulfil Federal Law No. 131, according to which, in their opinion, they have the right to deal with the development of the tourist cluster, adopted a resolution. They ask the President of the Russian Federation to enforce the constitutional order in the republic and refuse to cooperate with the "Resorts of Northern Caucasus", until the land of the village is transferred to the municipality.

A group of local MPs from all four factions of the Duma of the Stavropol Territory – "United Russia", "Fair Russia", Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR) and Communist Party (CPRF) – offer to adopt at the autumn session a territorial bill on deputy's investigation.

A fact of mass death of pig-fishes has been revealed in the territory of the coastline in the Gulf of Taganrog. Plenty of fishes of all ages were found on the shore.

On October 1-14, 2012, the city of Shushi will host the first Festival of Contemporary Arts "Earth and Technologies", which will be attended by 20 art historians from Armenia and Diaspora and accompanied by an exhibition of works of artists of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A substantial increase in food prices before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan annoys residents of Chechnya and Dagestan. The authorities say that they are unable to influence the situation; and the local clergy try – with little success, however, – to change the situation by appealing to the norms of Islam.

At night on August 18, the Armenian armed forces shelled the positions of the Azerbaijani army, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan. The Armenian party rejects the accusations and reports numerous attacks undertaken by Azerbaijanis.

The Baku City Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal case "on the fact of an attempted murder" of the late ex-president of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Aliev (Abulfaz Elchibey), who died in August 2000.

Ramin Bairamov, the editor-in-chief of the website "Islamazeri.com" is at large in Azerbaijan. On August 17, the travel session of the Surakhan District Court of Baku, which was held at the institution of punishment No. 16 of the Penitentiary Service of Azerbaijan, considered the journalist's appeal for conditional early relief (CER) because of serving half of his term. The court granted the petition of the journalist.

Three persons were killed and two others wounded in an explosion in the Sarukhan District of Baku, in a house, inhabited by forced migrants. A fire burst out, but was quickly eliminated.

Oleg Prudnikov, the organizer of the rally in support of the "Pussy Riot" group, who was detained on August 16, was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest on charges of disorderly conduct. He explains the verdict by his active oppositional activities.

Session of the Karabulak Court on the case of torture in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ingushetia, scheduled for today, was postponed for indefinite period.

In Rostov-on-Don, three participants of the action in support of "Pussy Riot" were injured in an attack of aggressive young people. This was reported by Vladislav Ryazantsev, one of the organizers of the action.

Temporary restoration of Iran's visa regime to enter the country has created serious problems for the citizens of Azerbaijan, who planned to travel to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Azerbaijani citizens, who go to Iran for medical treatment, and residents of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), who go to that region by bus by transit through Iranian territory, form long lines at the Embassy.

Today, in Sochi, at the Mayoralty, the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", the "Yabloko" Party, and Kudepsta residents held a protest action against the construction of a thermal power plant (TPP) in the village and in support of Pavel Chesnokov, who was detained in the confrontation of local residents and builders of the TPP. The protest action was held in the format of citizens' gathering, and it was attended by about 30 persons. The gathering ended without any detentions or incidents.

The festival "DebutFest", held in Armenia, was to be finished on August 15; however, screening of films within the film festival will continue till late August. This was reported by Araik Manukyan, Director of the Company "A.M. Media Production".

In Krasnodar, near two Orthodox churches Cossack Army Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky and Saint George's Church activists of the "Left-Wing Front" held pickets in support of the band "Pussy Riot". Today, the court found members of the band guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for "punk prayer", performed in February in the Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Rita Zoloeva, the cook of the kindergarten "Ivushka" (Willow) in the Kirov District of North Ossetia, was found guilty of violation of the sanitary and epidemiological rules, which negligently caused the mass poisoning of children in April. The court sentenced her to a fine of 5000 roubles.