News

As reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Sova", in 2010, more than 400 persons suffered in Russia as a result of racism- and xenophobia-based attacks. The HRC links a particular surge of violence with the clashes in Manege Square in Moscow.

In the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, three young men have been kidnapped supposedly by power agents. Two of them came back home with bruises - results of beatings, while the fate of the third one is still unknown, runs the statement of Musa Khamkhoev, his father, addressed to the Ombudsman of Ingushetia and human rights activists.

The owners of the apartments in the city-resort of Sochi, located near the future Olympic objects, will be restricted in their rights to use their real estate property during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. In January-March 2014, their apartments will be handed over to the Sochi-2014 Organizing Committee.

The Prosecutor's Office of Adygea has approved the indictment against Madzhit Khatukai, head of the Maikop Forestry. He is accused of negligence entailing damage to the state caused during the works in the territory of the Nature Monument "Upstream Sections of Pshekha and Pshekhashkha Rivers".

The "Rosimuschestvo" (Federal Property Management Agency) has announced auctions on a number of ports and shipping companies, including those located in the Southern Federal District (SFD): in Rostov-on-Don, Azov (Rostov Region), Tuapse and Eysk (Krasnodar Territory) and Volgograd.

On the eve of the New Year, in the evening on December 31, a total of 38 video appeals of residents of the Krasnodar Territory to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev under the title "Kuban - to Russian President" were posted on the Internet.

Movlid Khaibulaev, a 3rd year student of the North-Caucasian Branch of the Russian Law Academy under the Russian Ministry of Justice, located in Makhachkala, has become World Champion in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA, or M-1) among adults in the 64 kg weight category.

Kakha Bekauri has left the post of Director General of the "Maestro" TV Company. According to his version, he took this decision to allow the founders to find some easier solution in their critical financial situation.

On the New Year night, an identified person shot dead from automatic firearms the Acting Head of the Criminal Search of the Untsukul ROVD (District Interior Division) of Dagestan.

The procedural errors in the criminal case on the attack of Rifkat Shabanov, Deputy of the Astrakhan Regional Duma, on journalists during the election of the Mayor of Astrakhan on October 11, 2009, could have been made deliberately by inspectors of the Russian ICPO for the Astrakhan Region. This was stated by Oleg Shein, Russian State Duma Deputy. In his opinion, any protraction is beneficial for the defendant.

After the city administration refused to sanction the human rights defenders' "March of Dissent" within the Movement "Strategy-31", Sergey Basmanov, director of the organization to protect constitutional rights of citizens, said that at 6:00-8:00 p.m. he would hold a solo picket.

On December 29 in Baku, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev was decorated with the Prize "Journalists' Friend" for 2010, awarded by the Committee to Protect Journalists "RUH". It was ambiguously perceived by the journalistic community, politicians and civil society activists, who believe it illogical to reward the president, when the country has serious problems with the freedom of the press, and where pressure on media people.

Today, in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, an explosion occurred near the wine and vodka shop; one person suffered.

On December 30, an operative agent from a special-purpose militia unit, deployed near Moscow, received serious traumas at detention of an offender in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia; this was reported by a source from local law enforcement bodies.

By the New Year, the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has pardoned 407 prisoners. This was stated at today's briefing by Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, local Minister for Correction, Probation and Legal Aid.

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.