News

On July, 20, former street traders held a new action of protest in the capital of Armenia, near the Mayor’s office. They state that after prohibition of street trading it has become difficult to support their families because of outrageous prices on the city market tolls. The traders are going to hold a series of hunger strikes near governmental buildings of Yerevan.

During the last several days a growth of the number of recourses of the citizens to medical institutions was registered in Chechnya. Physicians explain it by the heat that established in the republic. Republican Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that a heat of 40 degrees is expected in the nearest three days in the territory of Chechnya which may result is extraordinary accidents.

Today, the Sumgait Court of Appeal, chaired by Judge Lyatifa Mamedova, has continued considering the complaint of Jabbar Savalan, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA).

In Kabardino-Balkaria, investigators have presented charges to three villagers of Nartan, Chegem District, suspected of raping an underage girl.

An original protest action against corruption in Azerbaijan was held today by local civil society activists in Baku in front of the office of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD). They sent balloons into the sky with quotations from the speeches of President Ilham Aliev on combating corruption.

Today, under chairmanship of Rizvan Kurbanov, Deputy Prime Minister, a sitting of the commission for adaptation of members of the armed underground of Dagestan took place, where it was decided to ask investigators not to put Seidula Kazanalipov, a surrendered resident of the Botlikh District, behind bars.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has satisfied the lawsuit filed by Kameta Khashueva, the mother of Mamed Bagalaev, who was accidentally killed during a special operation of Russian power agents and ordered Russia to pay 45,000 euros to her.

The second quarter of 2011, as compared with the first one, saw an increase in the number of cases of pressure on journalists in Armenia. This was reported today at a press conference by Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech. According to his story, while during the first three months there were no incidents of violence against journalists, there were already two such cases in the second quarter of 2011.

On July 18, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov was interrogated as a witness at the trial of the 21-year-old alleged member of the armed underground, who last year surrendered in response to Evkurov's persuasion.

Chechnya introduces a ban on sale of energy drinks to minors. Recently, such drinks became very popular among Chechen young people; however, doctors believe that excessive use of these drinks can seriously deteriorate one's health.

Relatives of the young men who went a couple of weeks ago to join militants, whose houses, according to residents of the Shali District, were burned down, signed a non-disclosure commitment about what happened. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by a close relative of one of the suffered families.

A major in Stavropol region who was displeased with the fact that a soldier did not fulfill his order to clean up the territory of the military unit took away his tommy gun and struck him with the buttstock in his head, a source in the investigative bodies reported. After that the soldier jumped down from the fifth floor of the barracks.

A special beach for physically challenged people was opened in Novorossiisk. However, according to the disabled visitors themselves, the new social object needs improvement.

The court selected a preventive punishment for residents of the republics of Northern Caucasus detained for suspicion of preparation a mass act of terror in Moscow in form of arrest till September, 6.

International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" in Yerevan saw a record number of applications; two years after the murder of Chechen human rights defender Natalia Estemirova her colleagues present results of their own inquiry; Victor Dvorakovskiy, "Russian Wahhabi" suspected of preparing terrorist attack arrest in the Stavropol region, – look these and other events in the review of the week of July 11-17, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On July 18 the Chief Prosecutor's Office of Georgia disseminated confessional evidences of Georgi Abdaladze, the photographer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia, detained on espionage charges, who said he had been recruited by Russian secret services in 2002 in South Ossetia.

A new faction in the Parliament of Georgia "Unity for Justice" initiates the establishment of the temporary Investigatory Parliamentary Commission to investigate the facts of persecution of journalists.

Today, the first meeting within the dialogue between government and opposition was held in Yerevan. No top problems were discussed, as David Arutyunyan, the representative of the working group from the ruling coalition, said after the meeting.

The victims of the explosion, which occurred in Kaspiisk city last night, feel satisfactory. About this the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Ferzilakh Ferzilaev, the department head of the Caspian city hospital. All victims got shell fragment wounds.

Last night in Mutsalaul village of Khasavyurt District unidentified persons shelled with submachine guns the house ownership of a local resident woman, suspected of illegal alcoholic beverages selling, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Rasul Magomedkhanov, a resident of the village.