News

The NGO “Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” has demanded to stop the criminal prosecution of Mziya Amaglobeli and to fire the Batumi police boss who had detained the journalist.

Larisa Baragunova, a pensioner from the city of Tyrnyauz, convicted for attacking law enforcers, has complained that the administration of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) bans her from call home, and her cellmates put pressure on her.

Three independent Azerbaijani journalists received emails with offers of cooperation signed by their French colleagues. The Azerbaijani journalists believe that those messages were sent by local law enforcers in attempts to get a pretext to institute criminal cases of espionage.

On the 16th anniversary of the murder of advocate Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist of the “Novaya Gazeta” newspaper, memorial events were held in various cities in Russia, as well as France, Germany, Thailand, and other countries.

The Prosecutor's Office (PO) has approved the charges against Ruslan Nurushev, a Volgograd lawyer, in the case of disseminating fakes about the Russian Army.

Repressions in Azerbaijan, pollution in Anapa, trial against former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, protests in Georgia, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 13-19, 2025, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

The court has overturned the ruling to enforce the sentence passed to Timur Idalov, a Chechen lawyer. The decision to keep him in custody after announcing the verdict is contrary to the law, his defence has stated.

Activists in masks who protest against the ban on covering faces during protest actions have joined the Georgians who gathered outside the parliament demanding to go on with the country's European integration and new elections.

Pensioners Nikolai Nabiev, Sergey Kuzovenko, and Marina Zakharova, accused of creating an illegal armed formation (IAF), complain about their health problems in a SIZO (pre-trial prison).

In its annual report on the human rights situation, the “Human Rights Watch” (HRW) international human rights organization has pointed to the intensification of repression against journalists and activists in Azerbaijan, as well as the practice of torture in prisons and the persecution of LGBT* community members.

A court in Sochi has found Alexei Schus, an engineer, guilty of spreading fake news about the Russian Army motivated by hatred and sentenced him to 5.5 years in colony. He was also banned from administering websites for three years, the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has reported.

In a letter to the Russian President, Igor Nagavkin, a convicted human rights defender, has offered to involve prisoners from the penal colonies in the liquidation of the environmental disaster in Kuban (the Krasnodar Territory) and expressed his desire to go to Anapa; he himself has expressed his readiness to take part in cleaning the beaches voluntarily and free of charge.

On the 50th day of protests against the suspension of Georgia’s European integration, activists demanded to provide them with airtime on the “Georgian Public Broadcaster” Radio and TV Company to talk about the circumstances of the detention and arrest of Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Batumelebi” and “Netgazeti” online publications.

In order to receive the payment promised by the leader of Chechnya for naming newborns after national heroes, pregnant women could resort to labour stimulation or caesarean section, as well as manipulation of the birth date. The abnormal number of boys born on December 31 confirms the above assumptions, analysts believe.

In Chechnya, people are forced to sign contracts, while law enforcers may set up a so-called "exchange fund" of volunteers from other regions who have arrived in the republic and will sign contracts (with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD)) instead of local residents, human rights defenders believe.

The chief of the penal colony in Uryupinsk did not allow human rights defender Valentin Bogdan, who defends his colleague, to visit Igor Nagavkin. Valentin Bogdan called the actions of the penal colony chief unlawful and lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

The “Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” (GYLA) non-governmental organization (NGO) has called the arrest of Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Netgazeti” and “Batumelebi” online publications, politically motivated.

The Sochi Court of Appeal has scheduled a hearing on the appeal complaint against Nikita Zhuravel's verdict in the treason case for February 18, 2025, the BFM (Russian Business FM News) has reported.

Volunteers from all over Russia who have arrived in Chechnya to sign military contracts have complained that they are kept locked up for weeks in order to be sent to the combat zone instead of the local residents who had paid their way out of service.

A court in Rostov-on-Don has fined Rostislav Pavlischev by 10,000 roubles, after treating his post placed in a social network as participation in the activities of an undesirable organization. This was reported by the human rights project "OVD-Info"*.