News

On January 25 the European Parliament held a sitting of the Human Rights Commission. The MPs discussed the situation in Northern Caucasus. Heidi Hautala, Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee, drew attention to kidnappings and torture of citizens of Ingushetia.

According to preliminary reports, two persons were killed and five injured in an explosion of as mined car in the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan.

At the Domodedovo Airport, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent received confirmation of the information about the operative actions held in the terminal building and related to the received call about the bomb planted in the airport.

Tragedy in Kuschevskaya village continued by massacre in the Stavropol Territory; African swine fever attacks South of Russia; wave of earthquakes covers Southern Caucasus; European Parliament finds Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be occupied territories, - look these and other events in the review of the week of January 17-23, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

As reported by Radoslav Bashuk, advocate of Akhmed Zakaev, former head of the government of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who is now in London and who was put by Russia on the international search list, Poland refused to grant visa to his client.

On January 31, Pyatigorsk plans to host a roundtable with participation of public, mass media and human rights activists with the aim to launch public control over the course of investigations into human rights violations committed by law enforcers of the Predgorny ROVD (District Interior Division) of the Stavropol Territory.

In January 2011, a new public movement named "Open Coast" was founded Russia with the aim to conduct a "broad public monitoring" and inform citizens about "most obvious violations of their fundamental right to unobstructed use of the natural resources of Russia."

Yesterday, on January 25, The Public Observation Commission over Detention Places of Kabardino-Balkaria visited the women's colony located in the village of "Sovietskiy" in the Prokhladnoe District, where 389 women are currently serving their terms. Some of them are seriously ill, many have no jobs.

Sergey Levchenko, Deputy head of Transit Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs in North-Caucasian Federal Okrug, is suspected of bribe-taking to a sum of 50 thousand rubles, Press service of Southern Transit Prosecutor's office reports.

At night of January, 29, an explosion of domestic gas took place in one of the back rooms of a unit of the Ministry of Interior Affairs dislocated in the settlement of Khankala, in the neighbourhood of Grozny. Five officers of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Russia assigned to Chechnya from different regions were taken to hospital with woundings of various extent of gravity.

A next in turn session of the Criminal Court of Vienna, the tenth one, on the case of murder of Umar Israilov, ex-officer of President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov's security guard, took place on January, 19. A witness was interrogated during the session who denied his former evidence out of fear for his people living in Chechnya.

The explosion at the Moscow Domodedovo Airport on January 24 became the 26th terror act committed in the Russian capital since 1996, and the first one committed in a Moscow international airport. Since 1996, terrorists attacked various crowded places in Moscow: hotels, public transport stations, trade centres, concert halls, transport means and even residential buildings, killing at least 627 persons and injuring 934 ones. At least 10 of these explosions were carried out by suicide bombers. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on data from open sources.

On January 24, one miner was killed and three more injured in a collapse of the elevator cage in the mine "Rostovskaya" of the city of Gukovo, Rostov Region; one victim is in grave condition, and two have minor injuries, said the spokesman from the Ministry of Public Health of the Rostov Region.

After the terror act in Domodedovo, activists of Russian public organizations, which unite the people who suffered from terror activities, keep reminding that the state resorts only to payment of compensations, but is not responsible for the further fate of the victims, who still need medical care and rehabilitation years after the terror acts, where they suffered.

After the terror act in Domodedovo, the Internet community is trying to understand how the suicide bomber could freely enter the building with nobody checking and stopping him. Blogs express different versions of what happened.

According to the source, members of the so-called "Nogai Battalion", who took revenge on power agents for conducted special operations, could be involved in the terror act in Domodedovo Airport.

The sentence against journalist Fatullaev remains in force; this was the end of considering the journalist's appeal complaint at the Baku Court of Appeal. It was a surprise for the advocates and the journalist, because the hearing of parties' arguments had been appointed for today.

According to the updated list of victims of the terror act in Domodedovo, posted on the website of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) of Russia, among those hospitalized there were citizens of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Serbia and France - one of each; the list also includes three citizens of Tajikistan, two citizens of Moldova and one - of Uzbekistan.

The Russian Supreme Court (SC) refused to change the territorial jurisdiction of the case dealing with the death of six Moscow schoolchildren on the Yeisk Spit in the Azov Sea on July 7, 2010, having rejected the petition of the victims, who asked to transfer the trial from the Yeisk City Court to Moscow.

Twenty persons were detained on suspicion of involvement in a mass brawl that occurred yesterday, on January 23, in the south of St Petersburg. Eight of them are the natives of Azerbaijan. At present, the suspects are questioned by law enforcement officials.