News

Andrea Nikastro, a journalist of the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, has explained the fact of distortion of the words of Doku Itslaev, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Chechnya, by the deficit of time he had for the publication.

On June 20 residents of city-resort Sochi held a number of rallies and pickets in defence of municipal streets against construction of federal highways; most of them are planned right under tenants' windows and assume cutting away a lot of greenery.

As reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", where on June 18 Zukhra Chitigova, Zelimkhan's mother, addressed her repeated written application, her son is still under guard in Karabulak hospital.

Video clips have been published, in which, supposedly, the natives of Dagestan Janet Abdurakhmanova and Maryam Sharipova - suicide bombers on March 29 in Moscow metro, justified the motives of their actions.

Residents of Chechnya report about a failed attempt of power agents to detain in the plain Naur District of the republic of two young men - brothers of participants of the armed underground - and threats to their parents with a demand to bring their runaway sons to law enforcement bodies.

As reported by Alexei Baranovskiy, coordinator of the organization named "Russian Verdict", in relation to Nikita Tikhonov, accused of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov, the criminal prosecution on another murder case - of anti-fascist Alexander Ryukhin in 2006 - was stopped for absence crime attributes.

Advocate Keti Bekauri, who is defending the interests of Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, the son of the first president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, said that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should put pressure on the authorities of the country.

Andrei Krasnenkov, lawyer of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has stated that he had offered Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", to discuss reconciliation of the parties, but received no answer.

The Novgorod Regional Court made a partial addition of two verdicts passed to Salambek Dzakhkiev, a resident of Ingushetia and a figurant in the case about blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in 2007, and increased his total term of imprisonment by six months.

On June 18, Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, saw a solemn ceremony of laying the first stone into the foundation of the Orthodox temple of Madonna Holy Protection and Holy Cross Day. The Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh is against construction of an Orthodox church "in occupied Azerbaijani territories" and is going to protest.

In the capital of Azerbaijan, policemen have again dispersed a protest action of the oppositional block "Azadlyg" (Freedom), which was held with a demand of the freedom of assembly and democratic character of the forthcoming elections.

The health condition of lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova, who was beaten by employees of the GOVD (City Interior Department) of Khasavyurt, remains grave. Her relatives, who feared that she would lack qualified medical help while in Khasavyurt, insisted on her transfer to the Republic's Clinical Hospital in Makhachkala.

Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), believes that the situation with safety in the Caucasus has already been "reversed", while the authorities are able to remove the administrative barriers, which hamper to implement investment projects.

Because of continuing torrential rains in high-mountainous Mestia District of Georgia, rivers have overflowed the banks; 17 automobile bridges were destroyed; and about 10 km of motorways are out of operation. The nature also damaged the Tsalendzhikh District.

The Chechen airline "Grozny-Avia" starts regular international flights. The first aircraft will take off from Chechnya to Turkey on June 20.

On June 18, the Moscow City Court made a decision to leave Tatarkhan Kartoev, a native of Ingushetia, one of the persons accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in November 2009, in custody.

In the Imereti Lowland of Sochi, where 2014 Winter Olympiad objects are being erected, archaeologists found several ancient settlements dated back to the 4th-5th centuries BC.

On June 18, the Georgian human rights organization "Priority of Human Rights" sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg against the governments of Russia and Georgia in the context of breaching the Minsk Convention in the course of warfare in August 2008.

On June 18, the organization named "Help of Norwegian People" finished de-mining of the area from the city of Gori (Georgia) to Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. The territory, which was full of cassette mines after the August war, is now completely cleared.

Today, in a small square adjoining the building of the Armenian Philharmonic Society in the capital of Armenia, a protest action was held in defence of political prisoners. Its participants held a sit-in strike and demanded immediate release of 15 political prisoners remaining behind bars after the amnesty, which was announced right one year ago.