News

On Wednesday, April 14, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia made a statement demanding to investigate the murder of a minor shepherd by frontier guards of Azerbaijan. Under the version of the Georgian party, the casualty had crossed the border by occasion, while the Azerbaijani party asserts that the violation of the border was deliberate and was accompanied by threats addressed to frontier guards.

While the number of commercial construction sites and erected fences in Sochi goes up, the city dwellers are holding their day-and-night defence of the general-use green zones in the Plane-Tree Alley.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) welcomes the successes reached by the organizers of the 2014 Winter Olympiad in Sochi, marking that all works are under the schedule.

Today the opposition, which holds a rally in front of the building of Georgian, made a half-an-hour blockade of traffic in the Rustaveli Avenue, demanding to stop politically-motivated prosecutions of citizens and release - after April 16 - all political prisoners.

In the Dagestan city of Kaspiisk, an explosive was triggered under the bottom of the bus of the Caspian frontier squad.

Today, the judicial session at the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, which considers the events on October 13, 2005, in Nalchik, was again disrupted by the defendants who disagreed to replacement of an advocate.

On April 13 activists of the "Centre of Spiritual and Moral Upbringing and Development of Chechnya" and Patriotic Club "Ramzan" held an action, together with regional branch of the Russian Red Cross, under the motto "Save Life" and donated blood for victims of terror acts in Moscow, Dagestan and Ingushetia.

A youth rally-protest "Candle of Memory" dedicated to casualties of terror acts in Moscow, Dagestan and Ingushetia was in Uchebnoe village, Prokhladnoe District of Kabardino-Balkaria, under the initiative of young people of the village and students of the Terek Agricultural Technical School.

The project "Peace to the Caucasus" and the report of the Russian Public Chamber's working group on development of public dialogue and institutes of civil society in the Caucasus will give nothing in the practical sense, but will at least help to bring the materials to the knowledge of high-ranking officials. This is the opinion of candidate of philosophy, senior scientific worker Enver Kisriev, head of the division of sociology of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On April 11, the severely beaten Dagestan lawyer Sergey Kvasov was transferred from resuscitation to ordinary ward. Now, his condition remains stably grave. His colleagues come to act as blood donors for Sergey.

Today in Baku, the police have prevented a picket of activists of the "Musavat" opposition party in front of the building of the Baku Mayoralty with the demand for the freedom of assembly.

Refugees from South Ossetia who live in Khurvaleti village, Gori District of Georgia, complain of intolerable living conditions. Arina Tavakarashvili, a UN expert who is in charge of monitoring the refugees' living conditions, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that in Khurvaleti the situation for refugees was bad from the very start of building houses for them. Refugees from Abkhazia also speak about heavy living conditions.

As stated by Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the signatories of the petition in defence of the relatives of the perished Ingush human rights defender Maksharip Aushev are threatened by some unidentified persons. These relatives were kidnapped last December.

The Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia (AYLG) has filed a claim to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in favour of relatives of a Georgian soldier lost during the August events in South Ossetia in 2008. The claim refers to facts of torture and murder by Russian and Ossetian militaries of the Georgian soldier named Georgiy Antsukhelidze.

Malik and Khadizhat Gataev, a married couple from Chechnya, who are presently in Helsinki, wait for the next trial on their case and hope for fair consideration.

On April 15, the settlement of Yantarny, Prokhladny District of Kabardino-Balkaria, will host the Cossack round to discuss the situation after the mass fight between the youth of the villages of Altud and Yantarny.

The Collegium of the Novgorod Regional Court has rejected cassations on the case of a bribery attempt on the inspector who was dealing with the "Neva-Express" train blowing up in 2007; thus, the verdict entered its legal force.

As reported by Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Russian FSB (Federal Security Bureau), at the sitting of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), 26 members of the terrorist group, which organized blowing up of the "Neva-Express" train in November 2009, were liquidated, and 14 more were detained.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has officially confirmed the information that a group of Georgian tourists applied for political asylum in Israel, but at the same time found their demand unachievable.

Today, the Primorskiy District Court of Novorossisk has ruled that Vadim Karastelyov should pay 50,000 roubles to Vladimir Chernositov, head of the city UVD (Interior Department), who had accused the human rights activist of disseminating discrediting information.