News

In Dagestan, after the Friday prayer, near the central mosque of the city of Khasavyurt, a dialogue of advocates of the Sufi and Salafi trends of Islam took place. In the course of the joint debate the believers stated that imams should be elected, not appointed. They decided to convene the Board of Imams before the start of the Ramadan month.

Today, after a meeting of Armenian and Turkish entrepreneurs, which was held in Yerevan within the programme "Promoting Advancement of Armenian-Turkish Relations", a memorandum of understanding in the sphere of tourism was signed. The memorandum aims to create the Association of Armenian and Turkish Tourist Companies.

On July 21, in the Chegem District of Kabardino-Balkaria, a mudflow went down on the highway in the area of Chegem Waterfalls and damaged a gas pipeline, leaving four villages and a frontier unit without gas supply. In the village of Nizhni Chegem several houses were flooded.

On July 22, Azerbaijan marks the Day of National Press. 136 years ago, on July 22, 1875, the first issue of the first newspaper in the Azerbaijani language "Ekinchi" (Ploughman) was published by the outstanding Azerbaijani educator Gasan Bek Zardabi. The Day of National Press is marked since Azerbaijan gained its independence in 1991.

Operative agents believe that among other things Victor Dvorakovskiy, who is suspected of involvement in terrorism, was also recruiting new militants. This was stated by Nikolai Olekhnovich, acting head of the first operative-search unit of the Chief Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

The construction and restoration works in one of the main streets of the Chechen capital – Akhmat Kadyrov Avenue – are nearing completion. The opening of the completely renovated avenue is scheduled for August 23, the birthday of the former head of Chechnya. The reconstruction involves a large number of builders and workers from Turkey and Azerbaijan, which causes resentment among local residents, who remind about high unemployment rate in the republic.

“Black realtors” from Azerbaijan in Astrakhan were sentenced to long terms of custody for murders and robbery.

On July, 21, Secretary of Security Council of Ingushetia Ahmed Kotiev, Ombudsman of the republic Jambulat Ozdoev together with Head of the Committee for adaptation of gunmen and First Vice-premier of Dagestan Rizvan Kurbanov visited the investigative isolation ward where the citizens of Kazakhstan who formerly appealed to the Committee for aid are kept.

Two Polish alpinists got lost on July, 21, on the Northern slope of Elbrus, Head of Press service of North-Caucasian regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Kantemir Davydov reported.

Abkhazia will take part in the 17th round of Geneva talks on security and stability in the Caucasus, scheduled on October 4, and set out its position on the issue concerning the refugees return. This was stated by Maxim Gvindjiya, Foreign Minister of Abkhazia, following the results of the meeting of Geneva talks Co-chairpersons with representatives of Abkhazia.

In Georgia, the landslide came down and hailstorm damaged mountainous villages in the Autonomous Republic of Adzharia.

The Bulgarian Court of Appeal granted the petition of Akhmed Chataev, a native of Chechnya, who challenged the legality of his extradition to Moscow.

During the week of July 11-17, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus took away at least 15 human lives; at least 24 more persons were wounded. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on own materials of the edition and information from other open sources.

Zurab Kurtsikidze, one of the Georgian photographers, accused of espionage, agreed to a procedural deal. This was reported today by Shalva Shavgulidze, one of Kurtsikidze's lawyers.

Lawyers and human rights activists will not accept the sentence imposed by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal on Tsotne Gamsakhurdia and after taking an appeal on the case from the Supreme Court of Georgia they will lodge a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This was reported today by Katie Bekauri, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia's lawyer.

The initiative group "Hospital – for children!" urged residents of Kalmykia to start collecting signatures under the collective letter to US President Barack Obama to take jurisdiction over the only Republican Children's Hospital in the region.

Chairman of Committee of Inquiry (CI) of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin ordered to verify all possible versions of the murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, including the ones offered by “Memorial” Human Rights Center, official representative of CI Vladimir Markin reported today.

At present, only 8 people of 271 families of the inhabitants of Gonio village of Khelvachauri District of Autonomous Republic of Adzharia of Georgia, whose lands, given to them in private ownership by the authorities' decision several years ago, have been seized, are at litigation with the authorities.

Participants of the conference "Motherland and Faith" in Stepanakert city (Nagorno-Karabakh) have accused a number of non-traditional Christian religious movements in violation of human rights and implementation of "undermining the political system with financing from abroad". In turn, believers offered to compose a list of features defining the concept of the "sect".

The Russian Federation is planning to allot 6,81 billion rubles on realization of an Investment program of assistance to South Osetia in 2011. This was reported by Minister of Regional Development Victor Basargin at a session of Intergovernmental Committee of the Russian Federation and South Osetia on July, 19.