News

The first All-Russian rally of blondes will take place in Sochi on July 23. Its programme includes parade of blondes and laying a stone into foundation of the first Russian restaurant for blondes to be built there.

Broad-scale special operation in Dagestani forests: militants manage to deceive power agents and escape; the 70th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War was marked in all regions of Southern and Northern Caucasus; arrests of oppositionists in Georgia in the context of another putsch statement; failed summit on Karabakh in Kazan, – look these and other events in the review of the week of June 20-26, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The campaign unleashed against the media by the deputy from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia Tigran Arzakantsyan is discrediting the understanding of the freedom of speech, said Ovannes Galadjyan, editor-in-chief of the newspaper named "Iravunk" (Law), who treated the MP's lawsuit as absurd and groundless.

As of 8 p.m. on June 27, Moscow clinics kept 12 victims of the explosion of the gas cylinder in Vladikavkaz. All of them with burn injuries were hospitalized to resuscitation wards of the clinics.

The Georgian NGOs "Priority of Human Rights" and "Network of Caucasian Women" have addressed their special statement to the Chief Public Prosecutor of Georgia, demanding to investigate the use of excessive force by the police in the course of the crackdown of the oppositional rally on May 26, 2011.

Today, on the Day of Youth, festivities for orphans were organized in Makhachkala by the Public Movement "Dagestan without Orphans".

As stated today by Rashid Nurgaliev, the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), at the operative meeting with the top managers of the Chief Department of his Ministry for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and for Dagestan, the local militants will be fought against by a special grouping of 7000 MIA employees.

The Salsk City Court in the Rostov Region has resumed the trial on recognizing of a number of materials of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist. The experts who spoke at the session believe that the defendants were promoting their religious exclusivity but add that it is common to all religions without exception.

The value of losses caused by high water to the Leningor District of South Ossetia has not been calculated in monetary terms yet; however, according to preliminary data, the damage caused to flooded houses will make at least six million roubles. This figure was announced by Alan Dzhussoev, the head of the Leningor District.

The officials of the Security Council of the Republic of Ingushetia are categorically refuting the information that the leader of the North-Caucasian armed underground Dokku Umarov may be hiding in the Djeirakh District of the republic, as had been reported earlier by a source from law enforcement bodies of Chechnya.

This year, Ingushetia plans to start construction of four enterprises, said the head of the republic Yunus-Bek Evkurov, in whose opinion Ingushetia is still subsidized by 90 percent from the federal budget.

On Saturday, June, 25, a picket in protection of greenbelts was held near municipal Concert hall of organ and chamber music of Krasnodar.

The power ministries of Chechnya consider that after undergoing a course of therapy in Turkey leader of North-Caucasian armed underground Dokku Umarov may be staying in the territory of Ingushetia.

Immediately after a picket devoted to International Day of support of victims of torture suppressed by the police personnel, Supyan Baskhanov, Head of the Mission of Inter-regional Committee Against Torture in CR, and Magomed Alamov, Inspector of the Department of public investigation, were summoned to Department of Interior Affairs of Grozny.

Today, Kazan has hosted a tripartite meeting of Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, where Ilham Aliev, Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In the context of the exercises "Kavkaz-2011", conducted by the Frontier Department the Republic of Ingushetia of the Russian FSB, today the legal regime of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) was introduced in the Djeirakh District.

Following their visit to Georgia, the members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions offer to apply, wherever possible, measures of freedom restriction and punishment, alternative to imprisonment, based on the principle of proportionality.

According to preliminary data, the explosion of a gas cylinder that happened at a wedding party in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, struck 46 persons, five children aged from 2 to 7 among them. Doctors find the health condition of 11 of them, including 3 children as extremely grave; they are all in the intensive care units.

The Centre in Defence of Freedom of Conscience and Religion (DEVAMM) has launched a campaign named "100,000-Strong Appeal to President of Azerbaijan" and aimed to express protest against the ban on schoolgirls to wear hijabs in schools.

All the Muslims should be equal; and to combat extremism, Dagestan needs neutral Islam, Magomedrasul Karanaev, Imam of the Dagestani village of Gubden, said today in Makhachkala, at the Congress of Religious Leaders of Northern Caucasus.