News

Earthquakes keep Eastern Georgia in tension for several days; pre-election campaign in Abkhazia interrupted by road accident; world champion in combat sambo from Dagestan kills a 19-year old student with one punch; houses located in Olympic route demolished in Sochi, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of August 15-21, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), the first Asian special expedition has successfully climbed Mount Elbrus in honour of the Independence Day of Indonesia, reports Alisa Tarim, the head of the press service of the administration of the Elbrus District of the KBR.

As a result of the competitions held on August 14-18 at the Pan-Armenian Games-2011 the united team of Yerevan is a confidential leader with its 32 won medals, including 12 gold ones.

Sergey Shamba, a presidential candidate in Abkhazia, got today into a road accident. The incident happened in the village of Bzypta, Gagra District, when the candidate's cortege was on its way to a meeting with voters.

Today, workers demolished No. 25 in Vesyolaya Street in the Adler District of Sochi, which happened to be on the Olympic route and, in the opinion of the owners – the Tkachenko family – was illegally alienated from them without due compensation.

The Chechen law enforcement bodies assert that the information that Albert Osupov, 26, a resident of the village of Elistanzhi, Vedeno District of Chechnya, who was killed at night on August 18 in Grozny together with three other alleged members of the armed underground, had been earlier kidnapped by unidentified persons has nothing to do with reality.

A number of popular Moscow theatres have expressed their readiness to cooperate with the Georgian stage director Robert Sturua, said Alexander Pudin, advisor of Deputy Moscow Mayor Liudmila Shvetsova.

Electricity supply to the Moscow business centre, which houses the consular division of the section of Georgia's interests at the Embassy of Switzerland in the Russian Federation will be resumed on Monday, August 22, for the period of two months under the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Russia.

The Georgian party has reached agreement with the American company "Dozortsev and Sons" about the return of the brands of Georgian wine "Khvanchkara" and "Kindzmarauli".

The fourteen-years-old resident of Khasavyurt who formerly reported that she had undergone gang rape altered her evidence and rejected the psychologists’ aid. The “Caucasian Knot” correspondent received this information from representatives of one of the local human rights organizations who referred to the girl’s mother and wished to remain anonymous.

The refugees inhabiting Block No. 1 of the kindergarten, located in the city of Zugdidi in Gamsakhurdia Street, are leaving the building. Twelve families are resettled into the new residential area in the city of Poti.

Leader of one of the human rights centers working in Chechnya declared that Albert Osupov killed on August, 18, in Lenin district of Grozny together with three other supposed participants of armed underground by members of the top brass had formerly been kidnapped by unidentified personnel of power ministries.

Tehran answered the note of protest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan concerning a statement of Head of General Staff of Armed forces of Iran, brigadier general Seiid Hasan Firuzabadi who predicted a “bad fortune” to Azerbaijan in connection with its contacts with Israel. The exact contents of the answer has not yet been made public however officials of the Iranian party in their comments condemn strongly-worded statements of Azerbaijan.

During a meeting between President of Russia and Head of Dagestan which took place in Sochi last week Dmitry Medvedev emphasized the necessity to “return people from paramilitary groups to peaceful life and reestablish their normal mentality”.

On August 19, the session of the Appeal Court of Armenia decided to release from custody opposition activists Sargis Gevorkyan, Vaagn Gevorkyanov and Artak Karapetyan, who had been arrested by the court of first instance of the communities Centre-Nork Marash.

Law enforcers have detained Alan Kochiev, the leader of the South-Ossetian public-political movement "Rukhs Fidan" (Bright Future), who is suspected of beating Alik Pliev, a member of parliament (MP) of South Ossetia from the People's Party.

The administration of the Dusheti District (Georgia), where the village of Vedzatkhevi is located, which was cut off from the outside world by a landslide in autumn of 2010, are going to fully resettle the villagers.

Residents of the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, have decided to hold a rally in Rostov-on-Don, where they want to demand from regional officials to review public utility tariffs. However, the city administration claims that the increase in utility bills has nothing to do with tariff growth.

Today, the Mamadysh District Court of Tatarstan passed a ruling in absentia on the suit and obliged the Military Unit No. 66431, stationed in the capital of South Ossetia, to pay out 80,000 roubles to Danis Zakirov as compensation of moral harm in connection with injuries that he received during his service.

Local authorities have received five applications asking to provide material help from the residents of the farm named Kamensky, Ilovlin District, Volgograd Region, who suffered from wildfire on August 11.