News

In Vladikavkaz, bank employees staged a multi-million heist, but their "triumph" was not long; in the Krasnodar Territory, ecological actions turned into arrests; election campaigns in Southern Russia reach the homestretch; Medvedev, Aliev and Sargsyan once again tried to decide the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh, but so far agreed only on prisoners' exchange, - look these and other events in the review of the week of February 28-March 6, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The investigator who is running the murder case of Yegor Sviridov, a fan of the Moscow "Spartak" FC, gave a permit to the main suspect Aslan Cherkesov to get married while in SIZO (pre-trial prison). Today, the native of Kabardino-Balkaria and his girlfriend Tatiana Rozhkova have legalized their relationships.

Nikita Tikhonov, who is accused of killing lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, cannot handle firearms. This was stated by journalist Dmitry Steshin, a witness at the process, during his questioning at the Moscow City Court.

On March 8 in Azerbaijan, Sakhavat Soltanly, deputy head of the youth organization of the "Musavat" Party, and Reshadat Akhundov, an independent youth activist, were detained and punished with administrative arrest. In the opinion of lawyer Erkin Gadirli, co-founder of the civil movement "Republican Alternative" (REAL), believes that these detentions have to do with the March 11 protest action, advertised on the Facebook; authority officials deny it.

The man, who blew himself up by a grenade in the evening on March 8 in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, has been identified as Beslan Abazov, a local resident. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about by a source from law enforcement bodies.

Six persons, one of them is a citizen of the Czech Republic - Thomas Fila, 30, who perished today, got under a snow avalanche on Mount Lomisi in Georgia near the Gudauri ski resort.

An explosive device went off this evening at the bus stop near the FSB Academy in Michurin Avenue in Moscow. Nobody suffered. Militants or radical youth groups are considered as priority authors of the incident by law enforcement bodies.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia is doing its best to evacuate six Georgian sailors from Libya, Nicoloz Vashakidze, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, reported.

A young writer who had not long before submitted an anti-defamation lawsuit against Khozhbaudi Borkhajiev, Chairman of the Journalist League of Chechnya, was beaten up in the center of Moscow. He was taken to oral surgery unit of the municipal hospital No 36 with grave traumas.

A nine-year-old resident of the village of Orta, Agdam district, was killed as a result of violation of cease-fire regime at the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Today, the "Women's Resource Centre" has held in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, an action aimed to acquaint the public with the notion of "feminism".

A new structure of the Representative National Assembly "Shepitsulebi" (Those who gave oath) was set up with the mission to curb human rights violations by the authorities.

About 30 complaints were sent to the commission for consideration of citizens' complaints about violations of their rights and freedoms by law enforcement agents, which was created under the People's Assembly of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR). The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Kharshim Tekeev, chairman of the commission.

Azerbaijani police continue detaining users of social networks in the context of the mass anti-government action named the "Great People's Day", scheduled by the members of the group set up on the Facebook under the same name.

On March 4-6, Warsaw hosted a conference of journalists from different countries, who work in the genre of investigative journalism. Among other things they discussed the situation in Northern Caucasus, including the murder of human rights advocate Natalia Estemirova committed in 2009.

Georgia is in the fifth place in the world in terms of police corruption, while three percent of the polled citizens of the country said that they gave bribes last year to officials of state institutions. These are the results of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) "Transparency International".

Boris Evloev, a resident of the village of Nesterovskaya, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, who had stated that his daughter Khava Tangieva lost her child and became unable to have children in future because of doctors' negligence, is now stating injustice of judicial and investigatory bodies. Without any success he demands a DNA assay, supposing that the child could be substituted at the maternity hospital.

As announced today by Yuri Boichenko, head of the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Ukraine, this country has given out Vladimir Alexeev, a Russian citizen and one of the suspects of committing the mass murder in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

Today the Finnish police have questioned Pastor Juha Molari, who had openly criticized the work of the website "Kavkaz-Centre", which is supporting the activities of Caucasian separatists.

A series of piquets in defense of Evgeny Vitishko, activist of "Ecologic Watch in Northern Caucasus" and "Yabloko" party, passed off in Krasnodar. Suren Gazaryan, Vitishko's colleague in "Ecologic Watch" and the party, was the organizer of the piquets.