News

The pilots of the company deny that the reason for the emergency landing of the Tu-154 aircraft in the Domodedovo Airport on December 4 was the fault of the crew.

Today, in the village of Tatarka, Stavropol Territory, local Cossacks held a rally to protest against deteriorating living standards and problems of the settlement.

Experts in Georgia are actively discussing the arrest of six suspects of the autumn terror acts. According to Mamuka Areshidze, an expert in Caucasian matters, Russian security services are actively using residents of Abkhazia as their scouts in the territory of Georgia. A military expert Irakli Sesiashvili does not exclude that should the suspects' guilt be proved, a diplomatic scandal may burst out between the USA and Russia.

Today, in Pushkin Square, residents of the Astrakhan Region held a picket against the "lawlessness", reigning in the region, as they assert.

A 27-year-old resident of Volgograd has posted in his blog under his nickname Yanissimo in LiveJournal an appeal to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev with complains against the obstacles he faced in treating his little daughter, deeply rooted into the health care system. His story has caused wide public resonance. Yesterday, on December 6, Mr Medvedev read the text of the open appeal.

Seven residents of the Korostin village, Kotovsk District of Volgograd Region, have been detained in Moscow near the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for holding an unsanctioned picket. According to the picketers, a similar gang as in Kuschevskaya, sheltered by local militia, operates in their village.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has instructed Yuri Chaika, head of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), to supervise the investigation into the facts set forth in the video appeal of inspector Ekaterina Rogoza, who stated that investigators of the Kuschevskiy District, Krasnodar Territory, had been forced by their bosses to stop criminal cases.

In Gorodovikovsky district of Kalmykia archaeologists discovered remains of a settlement dating back to 10-11-th centuries AD, i.e. the period of existence of the Polovtsian khanate.

A piquet devoted to the problem of treating unsafe waste products of "Plastcard" public corporation passed off in Krasnoarmeisky district of Volgograd on December, 4. The piquet was organized by Informational Center (IC) "Volgograd-Express" and "Ecology" club with participation of regional unit of "Yabloko" party and representatives of CPRF.

A judge of Kuban district Magistrate's court of Krasnodar discovered violations in the protocols of detention of Suren Gazaryan, one of the leaders of "Ecologic Watch" in Northern Caucasus, and returned the documents to the Department of Interior Affairs of Western district of Krasnodar.

Gabriel Gabrielyan, convicted for participation in the demonstration on March 1, 2008, has been early released today from the penitentiary institution named "Hospital for Convicts".

In Chechnya, the local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) have launched a large-scale prophylactic operation aimed to reduce the risk of fires and other emergencies in the days of the New Year celebrations.

Today, Georgia will start the 11th Tbilisi International Film Festival. In December 6-12, in total about 100 films will be screened, represented by 19 countries, including Poland, Britain, Russia, Germany, Turkey, etc.

On December 4, unidentified criminals stole Levitan's painting named "Burlaki" (Barge Haulers) with estimated value of 100,000 US dollars from the P. Gamzatova Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts in Makhachkala.

Andrei Rudomakha and Suren Gazaryan, activists of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", detained by militia in Krasnodar in the course of their protest action on December 5, were sent home, after interference of local human rights defenders, till the sitting of the local magistrate court.

The considered versions of the emergency landing of the Tu-154 of "Dagestani Airlines" in Domodedovo include technical disorder of the craft before takeoff; failure of mechanisms of the aircraft after takeoff; error of the crew; and fuel of poor quality. At the moment, the Investigatory Committee of Russia does not move any of the above as a priority.

In the course of a special operation in the village of Kirovaul, Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, which is conducted within the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, announced here on December 5, three law enforcers were wounded.

The earlier reports about a bomb onboard an "Aeroflot" aircraft, which was suspended in the Berlin "Schönefeld" Airport, were not confirmed.

On December 8-10, the Moscow's Central Journalists' House in Nikitskiy Boulevard will host an international conference named "Securing Safe Journalism in Eastern Europe", planning to deal with complexities of media work in Northern Caucasus and the problems faced by media in covering the events in the region.

About 5 percent of Armenia's citizens are disabled. As of November 1 this year, the country had over 180,000 persons with disabilities registered; for them employment is a problem. This was stated by Jemma Bagdasaryan, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (MoL); NGO activists agree.