News

In the Staropromyslovskiy District of Grozny, last night unidentified persons shot dead an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya; now, the inquiry is underway.

The broad-scale subbotnik (day of unpaid work) for cleaning Grozny announced on June 19 by President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov was again prolonged. He said that each of the sectors into which the Chechen capital was divided for the procedure, where a particular official was in charge of the sector, will be inspected, and no "work with drawbacks" will be accepted.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls the authorities of Russia to disclose the results of the investigation into the murder of Paul Khlebnikov, editor of the Russian version of the Forbes, who was shot dead near his Moscow office six years ago.

The Taganka Court of Moscow has found Andrei Yerofeev and Yuri Samodurov, organizers of the exhibition "Taboo Art-2006", guilty of kindling hatred. Now, the announcement of the verdict continues.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said that nothing threatens human rights activists in his republic, and nobody had even the slightest idea to hamper the HRC "Memorial". In his turn, the leader of the "Memorial" Oleg Orlov noted that human rights activists are always open for this sort of dialogue.

On July 15, 2010, one year after the murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", a commemoration picket will be held at 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the monument to Griboedov (Chistye Prudy metro station). Then, at 7:00 p.m. a memory party will start at 12 Maly Karetny, in the HRC premises.

In Georgia, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) named "Priority on Human Rights" has addressed local mass media with a request for help to receive information about the results of the work of the state commission, which appraised the damage suffered by Georgia in the course of the warfare in August 2008.

On July 9, Turborn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CЕ), said that representatives of the CE have no access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, because Georgian leaders fear that Europe may recognizes these republics.

The investigatory division of the regional FSB department has initiated a criminal case on the fact of an especially huge swindle (11 million roubles) at construction of a pontoon bridge across the Akhtuba River in the Volgograd Region.

Members of the Yamadaev clan reported that two bodyguards of Isa Yamadaev had been kidnapped by Chechen power agents; however one of them refuted this information.

Today at night in the west of Moscow, five natives of Armenia suspected of kidnapping were detained. They extorted 50,000 roubles for release of their hostage. This was reported by Victor Biryukov, head of the department of information and public relations of Moscow GUVD (Chief Interior Department).

Today, repairs of the damaged fibre-optical cable are over, and Armenia's access to the Internet is restored; however, experts do not exclude that new failures are possible within the next few days because of adverse weather conditions.

Representatives of the Balkar nation are on hunger strike in central Moscow for the fourth day already - since July 7. They protest against actions of the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria, who, in their opinion, discriminate their nation in the republic.

In Chistye Prudy in Moscow, a rally in defence of Andrei Yerofeev and Yuri Samodurov, organizers of the exhibition "Taboo Art" took place. Artists and human rights defenders came to the action organized by the movement "Solidarity".

The Human rights organization "The Amnesty International" (AI) calls to dismiss all the charges from Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev, organizers of the exhibition "Taboo Art-2006", suspected of "insulting the feelings of believers and kindling of religious hostility." This is stated in the AI's special statement on the occasion.

In the course of the first stage of implementing the development strategy of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), which is already underway, the earlier drafted and approved federal target programmes will be realized. As reported on July 8 in the city of Essentuki by Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of President of Russia in the NCFD, the government had allocated 75 billion roubles for this purpose.

Yesterday in the evening, on July 8, the most part of Yerevan lost its access to the Internet. Armenian providers blame Georgian specialists.

Following the request of the republic's residents and clergy, the Muftiyat of Ingushetia has increased the buy-out sum of blood feud by 10 times, and the bride-price - by more than 3 times. This was reported by the Mufti of the Republic Isa-Hadji Khamkhoev.

On July 9, 2010, a picket against raider's capture in the Krasnodar Territory of the agricultural enterprise - Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Zaporozhskoe" - was held opposite the central entrance to the building of the Investigatory Committee at the State Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation (ICPO). None of its officials went out to meet the protesters.

Blogger Alaudin Dudko, known under the nick of ingushetiya_ru, was transferred from the isolation facility of the Butyrka prison to the Lefortovo similar facility. The judicial session, where decision on his freedom restriction measure was made, ruled to leave him behind bars for three more months, while the investigation on his case continues.