News

As reported by Vadim Ramazanov, deputy head for international activities of the city's department of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), the supposed reason of today's morning fire in the premises of "Narodnaya Gazeta" (People's Newspaper) in Sochi was arson; according to latest data, there were no casualties or victims.

The decree to pardon 92 persons, signed by President of Azerbaijan, has not solved the problem of political prisoners in the country, local human rights activists believe. At the same time, Saida Godzhamanly, head of the Bureau of Human Rights and Law Defence, has positively assessed the decree from the standpoint of humanism.

Today, around 10:00 a.m., a heavy traffic accident happened in the Baku-Shamakhi Highway in Azerbaijan. Seven persons were killed and one person was injured.

In the opinion of journalist Thomas Tsivas, who has been monitoring the case of the Lithuanian girl Egle Kusaite, accused of preparing terror act in Russia, from the very beginning, the decision of the court to hold sessions behind closed doors has to do with the fact that the state security agency of Lithuania does not want to reveal its relationships with the Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB) and uncover Lithuanian special agents.

The programme of resettling residents of Northern Caucasus reached Penza. Within the resettlement programme of labour-excessive population the region will receive several hundreds of Dagestanis and Ingushes.

Khizar Daurbekov, a suspect of complicity in the explosion on September 9 in the marketplace of Vladikavkaz, where several dozens were lost, is still kept in the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of Vladikavkaz. His relatives and defender insist on his complete innocence and state gross violations of his rights in the course of investigatory actions.

Elena Slepko, an activist of the Inter-Regional Public Movement "All Persons Are Equal under Law and before Court", has come out today with her solo picket in front of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory with New Year greetings to local Governor Alexander Tkachov and a demand to release entrepreneur Sergey Lyakh from the Krasnodar SIZO (pre-trial prison). Elena was detained by militiamen, who claimed that her picket was not a solo one.

A draft of major directions of realization of national policy up to 2015 devoted to the use of social advertising for impact upon the young generation has been accepted in Stavropol region. This was announced at a session of Youth Inter-ethnic Council with the participation of Valery Gaevsky, Governor of Stavropol district, on December, 29.

On December, 29, the personnel of law enforcement bodies in the foothill district of Achkhoy-Martan detained a local resident who had been in federal search. The detained is accused of being involved in kidnapping.

A twenty-three-year-old woman who had been considered as missing was detained by militiamen on December, 26, in Gudermes, the second of the largest cities of Chechnya. The detained woman was conveyed to her relatives.

On Wednesday, December, 29, Ilham Aliev, President of Azerbaijan, signed a direction of mercy to 92 people.

On December 28, law enforcers of the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, detained Ahmednabi Ahmednabiev, a student of the Islamic University, who spread leaflets with a call not to celebrate the New Year. This was reported by the student himself. At the background of preparation for the holiday, the churchmen in Dagestan also note that Muslims should not celebrate the start of the new year, as it is a secular holiday.

Late at night on December 28 veterans of the Afghan War stopped their 9-day-long picket in Makhachkala.

On December 28, in the Akhalgori District of South Ossetia, Russian border guards detained two citizens of Georgia, who happened to be without documents.

The riots and clashes in Manege Square on December 11 were possible partly because for many years the authorities had paid no attention to the nationalism, flourishing in the country. This is the opinion of journalist and writer Viktor Shenderovich, one of the organizers of the rally "Moscow for All!" His criticism was supported by the writer Dmitri Bykov, who suggested that the state media would understate the number of the participants of the rally.

At the background of anti-nationalist actions held in Russia, nationalism-motivated mass brawls continue; head of Russian ICPO did not come out to Kuban residents in Kuschevskaya, but instructed to deal with their appeals; "war for hijabs" continues in Azerbaijan, - look these and other events in the review of the week of December 20-26, 2010, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Tonight it became known about the murder in Nalchik of Aslan Tsipinov, an ethnographer and Doctor of Historical Sciences.

The most frequent issues, on which residents of North Ossetia addressed the Russian President's Reception Office, which was opened in Vladikavkaz a bit more than a month ago, were allocation of housing facilities, material assistance, observance of law and the condition of public order; they also reported their social problems.

Veterans of the wars for the territorial integrity of their country are on the hunger strike for the third day already. They demand improvement of their social conditions.

The mass brawl in Derbent could be caused by a conflict between the followers of the Salafi and Tariqa trends of Islam, said a local resident Magomed Khanmagomedov. So far, the local militia has refused to disclose any details of the incident.