News

Erosi Kitsmarishvili, co-chairman of the Georgian Party, gave low estimates to the protest actions held in Kakheti. According to Giya Khelashvili, head of the regional branch of the Party, the low activity of people in participating in them was due the fact that local authorities intimidate people and do not allow them to go out to rallies. However, according to sociologist Gocha Tshvitigshvili, the radical opposition in Georgia is currently not very popular.

Downpour floods the capital of North Ossetia and several villages in Ingushetia - local residents count the damage, while the authorities are trying to eliminate the consequences of the disaster; on the eve of the Victory Day a terror act was prevented in Astrakhan, while Dagestan holds a large-scale special operations against militants; Azerbaijani police again disperses protest action in Baku, - look these and other events in the review of the week of May 2-8, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On May 10, the Taganka City Court of Moscow held a session on the case of the blogger Alexei Dudko. Three witnesses - law enforcers, including Ildar Tikarev, who commanded the search in Dudko's flat about a year ago - were questioned. According to Abu Gaitaev, the blogger's advocate, the circumstances of the search are hushed up by law enforcers.

Sergey Skobelev, Acting Mayor of Novoshakhtinsk, has been fined by 120,000 roubles for a series of illegal, according to prosecutors, payments made to himself and his subordinates. The verdict was appealed against.

In the course of the five-sided meeting within the Mechanism for Prevention and Reaction to Incidents (MPRI) Abkhazia often does not agree even with those arrangements, "which can be achieved without any political consequences," while the problem with the Ossetian delegation is that "they more promise than fulfil," believes Shota Utiashvili, head of the Georgian delegation at these meetings.

The today's announcement by the Nizami District Court of the city of Gandzha (Azerbaijan) of the sentence to oppositionist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, accused of evading his regular military service, has failed, because the defendant's advocates have boycotted the session.

Several activists of the Party of People's Freedom ("PARNAS") were detained in Rostov-on-Don on May, 11. They were delivered to the Department of Interior Affairs of Lenin district in Tekuchev street where protocols of administrative infractions were drawn up concerning them.

The car of Chief of regional Department of Education Labazan Magomedaliev was exploded in Untsukul district of Dagestan. There are no victims, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the republic reported.

On May, 9, a civil action "St. George ribbon" in Adygeia which had been going on since April, 26, within the framework of realization of republican target program "Youth of Adygeia" planned for 2009-2011 was accomplished, the Republican Committee of Youth Affairs reported.

Despite the refusal to register the public association "Beslan Memory", its activists are going to correct the mistakes indicated by the Ministry of Justice of North Ossetia and re-submit documents for registration. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Ella Kesaeva, leader of the movement "Voice of Beslan".

As reported by the information resources that support North-Caucasian rebels, on May 6, the Chechen refugee Abdullah Erzanukaev (Avstriiskiy) was shot dead from a pistol in France. So far, there is no official information.

In the course of the investigatory action held at the "Domodedovo" Airport, Evloev and Idriev, detainees in the case about the January 29 terror act, told in place what they knew about preparation of the explosion. The work of the airport was suspended for an hour; all the main entrances and exits were blocked.

The commander of North-Caucasian militants Dokku Umarov has appointed Ibragimkhalil Daudov (Amir Salikh) to be the new head of Dagestani underground.

Today, Egle Kusaite, a citizen of Lithuania, accused of preparing a terror act in Russia, was released from custody by the decision of the Court of Appeal of Lithuania, which found her arrest ungrounded. The decision is final and cannot be challenged; it says that Kusaite cannot be kept in custody, since the pre-trial investigation is over; and the case has been forwarded to the court.

The Pervomaiskiy District Court of Krasnodar has found four publications issued by the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist ones. Earlier, on one of these publications the court had already ruled that "it contained no signs of extremist materials."

As reported by a law enforcement source of the Astrakhan Region, the suspects detained by special agents of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) and MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) at night on May 7 in Astrakhan had planned terror acts under the guise of security forces, which is evidenced by the things found on them. Meanwhile, so far, there are no officially confirmed evidences that the detainees had intended to commit terror acts in Astrakhan.

Today, the Nizami District Court of the city of Gandzha, which is trying the youth activist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, accused of evasion from military service, listened to the speech of the state prosecutor. The prosecutor Alexei Abbasov asked the court to sentence Gadjiev to the maximum term envisioned by this article of the Criminal Code - imprisonment for 2 years.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan Abdurashid Magomedov has reported today to Rashid Nurgaliev, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, who arrived in Dagestan today, that the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the centre of Makhachkala had been identified. Among his potential targets experts name the building of the Lenin ROVD (District Interior Division) of Makhachkala, or the medical unit of the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) employees.

The report of Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner for Human Rights Council of Europe, published on May 9, is truly reflecting the situation in Armenia, and the rigorous assessments made therein could have been expected, say the Armenian rights defenders.

Today, at a regular session of the Khamovniki Court of Moscow on the slander case initiated against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, Andrei Krasnenkov, legal representative of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, has moved a number of new petitions.