News

Release of 15 Georgian sailors who have been staying in Somali pirates' prison over six months was deferred until the end of March "for technical and organizational reasons", Sergo Devadze, one of the sailors' father, Manager of "Greenwich-21" company, informed.

Night explosions in Ingushetia, in the neighbourhood of the town of Magas and the settlement of Ali-Yurt, which woke up the villagers of Ali-Yurt turned out to be connected with unknown criminals' assault upon the house of Bashir Gagiev, Chief of investigative isolation ward of Ingushetia.

Preliminary election outcomes in Southern Russia: opposition's complaints against satisfaction of election commissions; Manege Square in Moscow becomes again a "rendezvous" of nationalists; UN Security Council could see a dangerous terrorist in Dokku Umarov; protest actions in Azerbaijan again turn into clashes and arrests, - look these and other events in the review of the week of March 7-13, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The information about Mikael Storsjo and his help to refugees from Chechnya, which appears in Russia, is often just repeating the words of Storsjo's opponents, said Kerkko Paananen, secretary of the human rights organization "Finnish-Russian Civil Forum". He believes that the information from people, who have close relations with Russian authorities, is quoted by opposition media in Russia, which is puzzling people in Finland.

As reported by Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), in his speech at conference held in the North-Western branch of the Russian Legal Academy of the Ministry of Justice in St Petersburg, the investigation will have to build its evidence base in the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, reporter of the "Novaya Gazeta", on indirect evidences for lack of direct ones.

The newspaper "Armenian Time" has refused to implement the decision of the general jurisdiction court prescribing to publish a refutation and pay compensations to three members of the national parliament. On March 9, the edition filed an application to the Court of Appeal an appeal against the verdict of the court passed on February 7.

On March 15, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg made its decision on the case "Tsechoev versus Russia" and obliged the Russian authorities to pay compensation to the applicant Ruslan Tsechoev for the death of his brother in the amount of 15,000 euros, and awarded 2500 euros to representatives of the applicant for their legal work. The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", whose lawyers represented the suffered party, said that the ECtHR's decision was formal.

Today, a rally was held in Khasavyurt, in front of the district administration, where statements were announced about massive violations admitted on March 13 during the elections of Deputies to the People's Assembly of Dagestan. The protest action headed by elders brought together about 200 residents of the village of Novy Kostek, Khasavyurt District. The district administration gave no reaction to the rally.

Information about planted bombs has arrived in all the courts of the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria over the Internet. All the reports proved to be false.

Within the programme of humanitarian aid, aimed at neutralizing the Nubarashen land fill of toxic chemicals, the government of Brazil decided to transfer equipment worth over 80,000 US dollars to their Armenia counterpart as a gift.

As reported by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), Aslan Emkuzhev, who was assassinated at night on March 16 in Nalchik, had held his subversive and terrorist training in Lebanon and took part in warfare in the ranks of the radical Palestinian organization Fatah al-Islam.

The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (known as "Rosprirodnadzor") believes that the connivance of the officials from the Committee for Environment Protection of the Rostov Region had seriously damaged the ecology of the region. The prosecutor's office is investigating the case against Grigory Skripka, head of the Committee, initiated under the articles of "abuse of power" and "excess of power".

Audronus Azhubalis, operating Chairman of OSCE and Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, called for democratic reforms in Azerbaijan. Azhubalis declared at a meeting with the leaders of political parties of the country on March, 14, that Azerbaijan had a great potential to become the closest partner for Europe.

No less than seven people were killed, eight wounded and two kidnapped in armed confrontations in Northern Caucasus during the week from March, 7, till March, 13. This is the result of counting done by "Caucasian Knot" based upon its own data and information from other open sources.

Today, the Disciplinary Judicial Bench of the Krasnodar Territory reinstated two magistrate judges from the village of Kuschevskaya, who had been found guilty of links with the Tsapok's grouping.

On March 14, Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi Mayor, provided his study for talks on compensations and damage caused to the city by Olympic construction with 15 public activists who came there.

Despite the absence of warfare in Northern Caucasus, annually armed conflicts in the region take away lives of dozens of civilians. The year 2009 became the bloodiest for the Republic of Ingushetia - 304 casualties; in 2010, the death toll halved - 148 casualties. The figures are presented in the blog of the "Caucasian Knot" by Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the human rights organization named "MASHR".

A group of 11 parents from the Baksan District, Kabardino-Balkaria, has addressed their sons, who are on the wanted list and accused of involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs), with an appeal to lay down their arms.

A two-month arrest has been chosen as a freedom restriction measure for Samson Khachatryan, a famous boxer and opposition activist, who was detained on March 13 in Yerevan.

The Audit Department of Russian President has established facts of overpricing the construction materials used for building Olympic venues, said Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the Department.