News

In the course of the space bridge held on March 9 by the RIA "Novosti" between Armenian, Georgian and Russian experts, who discussed the opening of the surface border between Russia and Georgia at the check points "Darial" and "Verkhni Lars", it became clear that the experts viewed the event differently. Alexei Malashenko from the Carnegie Institute treated the fact positively, while Georgiy Khaindrava, one of the leaders of the non-parliamentary opposition, found incompatible such factors like "occupation of Georgian regions" and simultaneous restoration of communication between the two countries.

So far, no news about the whereabouts of Mikail Pliev, a resident of Ingushetia, kidnapped on March 4 in Pyatigorsk, arrived to his relatives, as his wife Makka reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Residents of Plievo village continue their protest near the local administration demanding to clear out Mikail Pliev's fate.

The person suspected of attacking Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee for Human Rights, who is representing the interests of disfavoured militiaman Alexei Dymovskiy, is at large.

The independent trade union of law enforcers and prosecutors of Dagestan made a decision at its assembly to address a letter to President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev and Chairman of the Council of Federation of the Russian Federal Assembly Sergey Mironov. In their letter Dagestan power agents ask to consider impossibility for Alexander Bastrykin to stay in the post of the head of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia.

Today, in Baku, the Azerbaijani Appeal Court, chaired by Judge Gail Mamedov, has upheld the verdict of the first instance court to bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade.

Israpil Shovkhalov, editor-in-chief, and Abdullah Duduev, chief editor, of the Caucasian independent magazine "Dosh", detained by power agents in Ingushetia on March 9, assert that timely publications in media about their detention allowed them to survive.

The succession of litigations in the aftermath of the post-election violence that burst out in March 2008 in Yerevan has revealed deficiencies of the judicial system of Armenia. This is stated in the report of the Office of Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

On April 27, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will consider the case about the murder in Georgia in 2005 of a bank employee Sandro Girgvliani.

On Monday, March 8, in Baku, a protest action was held in front of the US embassy in the context of the approval on March 4 by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the House of Representatives of the US Congress of draft resolution on Armenians' genocide.

On March 8, in North Ossetia, the committee for release of the teacher of the South-Ossetian State University Fatima Margieva held a sanctioned rally. The protesters gathered in the Theatre Square of Vladikavkaz with a demand to stop criminal prosecution of Margieva.

The Russian delegation labelled as politicized the report of Walter Kelin, Special Representative of Secretary General of the United Nations on Internally Displaced Persons' Rights, which summed up his visit to South Ossetia. The report was presented on March 8 at the 13th Session of the United Nations on Human Rights (HRS) held in Switzerland. In the opinion of Mikhail Lebedev, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Branch and other international organizations in Geneva, the report is lopsided, biased and contains factual mistakes.

As regarded by the Prosecutor's Office and Antimonopoly Service, the Chief Physician of the largest medical establishment of Dagestan - the Republic's Clinical Hospital (RCH) - has broken the legislation on purchase and circulation of medical products and medical equipment; therefore he was fined by 50,000 roubles.

The reason of multi-coloured snowfalls in the Stavropol Territory was a strong gusty wind, which lifted up clouds of dust into the air. This was reported by the local Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment ("Minprirody").

Today, the Primorskiy District Court of Novorossisk has obliged the city UVD (Interior Department) bosses to present the proofs of the fact that it was personally Major Alexei Dymovskiy who had placed a video appeal in the Internet with criticism of the situation in law enforcement bodies. Today, also the date was appointed for consideration of the suit of the head of the UVD to human rights activist Vadim Karastelyov.

The Investigatory Committee refutes information about detention of the second suspect in the case about the attack committed against Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee on Human Rights, who is representing the interests of former militiaman Alexei Dymovskiy.

Today, people in Sukhumi follow Vladislav Ardzinba, their first President and a symbol of the national-liberation struggle of the people of Abkhazia, to his grave. At 9 in the morning the coffin with his body was placed in the Abkhazian State Philharmonic Society. The mourning ceremony will last till 3:00 p.m. Moscow time.

Mair-Ali Vakhaev, a resident of the Achkhoy-Martan District of Chechnya who disappeared on February 11 in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, is still undetected. The law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic now nothing about his fate. A source from there does not exclude that Vakhaev could be killed by militaries, and his body hidden.

The Appeal Court of Armenia has upheld the verdict passed by the general jurisdiction court of communities Kentron-Nork-Marash to oppositionist Nikol Pashinyan. At the same time, the court ruled to apply amnesty and halved his custody term.

At today's session of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, which considers the attack of militants on power agencies in Nalchik, defendant Zaur Tokhov said that before the events on October 13, 2005, local law enforcers were beating local Moslems and searched their houses. The militiamen who gave evidences denied it.

Relatives of Mikail Pliev, a resident of Ingushetia who disappeared in Pyatigorsk, refute the information that Mikail was found. On March 8, his wife received a call from a man, who presented himself as an inspector and said that her husband was in SIZO (pre-trial prison) of Pyatigorsk. However, when relatives and a lawyer came there, they failed to find Mikail there, while SIZO employees asked them to come again on March 12.