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The Kabardino-Balkarian human rights centre was approached by Lydia Zhangurazova, a resident of Verkhniaya Zhemtala village, Cherek District, Kabardino-Balkaria, who said that her son Islam Zhangurazov, 23, went for his evening pray to the mosque on Sunday, December 20, but never reached the mosque.

Official outcomes of presidential election in Abkhazia; recognition of this republic and South Ossetia by the Republic of Nauru; violations of the freedom of speech in Azerbaijan; skirmishes in the contact line with Karabakh; terror acts in the south of Russia and return of the HRC "Memorial" to Chechnya, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of December 14-20 in Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In 2009, in the Rostov Region, 14 state and municipal officials have been attracted to criminal liability. On December 17, Nikolai Britvin, head of the FSB Department for the Rostov Region, told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, this was the result of implementing a complex of measures aimed to reveal, prevent and stop corruption processes in the bodies of state power and local self-management.

Vitaly Khripun, a sergeant of a Russian frontier unit, deployed in South Ossetia, explained his escape by the humiliations, to which he was subjected at his place of service.

The members of the Adyg Diaspora of Turkey, representing the public organization "Kakavsevi" (Caucasian Home), have condemned the recent attacks on leaders of the Adyg social movements in Kabardino-Balkaria.

The action, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the charitable fund "Armenian Registry of Marrow Donors" will take place on January 8, 2010, in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. This was stated on December 16 by Armen Khachatryan, Minister of Public Health.

The Russian party is ready to consider the materials of the Dubai police on the case about the murder attempt on the ex-commander of the "Vostok" battalion Sulim Yamadaev by means of own power agencies.

Today, the Baku Appeal Court, chaired by Gail Mamedov, held a preparatory session on the complaint of young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, sentenced on November 11 to 2.5 and 2 years of imprisonments for hooliganism and inflicting bodily injuries.

The today's consideration of the claim on defence of honour and dignity of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov against "Novaya Gazeta" was cancelled.

The health condition of inmate Mushvig Guseinov, convicted journalist of the newspaper "Bizim Yol" (Our Way), who suffers from tuberculosis, has again aggravated.

Relatives of Idris Albogachiev, a resident of Ingushetia, convicted on December 12 for violating disciplinary regulations in a corrective establishments in the Stavropol Territory, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Idris fell victim to inspectors' and judicial arbitrariness.

On Monday, December 21, leaders and activists of oppositional parties and movements held a protest action in Kutaisi against demolition last Saturday, on December 19, of the Memorial of Glory. When the monument was blown up, Eka Dzhincharadze and her eight-year-old daughter Nino were killed by concrete splinters.

The kidnapping of Georgiy Nakani, a resident of Neitrino village in Kabardino-Balkaria, and disappearance of three residents of the republic in November on their way to the city of Ufa, are the facts in the category of extrajudicial executions, widely practiced in Ingushetia and Dagestan. This is the opinion of Valery Khatazhukov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre.

As a result of the wounds obtained at explosion of the car in Nazran on December 16, the third relative - Amirkhan Dzhaniev - has died. Maksharip Aushev's widow Fatima Dzhanieva, who was wounded by the explosion, is able to evidence. Their relative Batyr Dzhaniev, whom the investigation calls the terrorist-suicide bomber, who, allegedly, took revenged for his perished relatives, on the eve of the incident left for Archangelsk, where he studies.

In Moscow, in the context of the explosion of the "Memorial of Glory" in Kutaisi, activists of the "Left-Wing Front" held a non-sanctioned protest action near the embassy of Georgia to Russia. None of the protesters was detained.

In Georgia, the Tbilisi City Court has ruled to put Avtandil Darsavelidze, technical director of the "Sakpetkmretsvi" company, suspected in the case about the explosion of the "Monument of Glory" in Kutaisi, to two-month pre-trial custody.

The government of Georgia and the community of experts differ in estimating the presidential election held in Abkhazia on December 12. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia made a statement, calling the presidential election in Abkhazia "a farce".

In Makhachkala, a rally was organized by teachers and students of the Dagestan State Polytechnic University (DSPU) against illegal construction launched in the park zone adjacent to the university. Unknown businessmen fell down old trees and during one night laid the basement of a supermarket in the territory of the largest city park.

Two civil society activists - Ilgar Nasibov and Vafadar Eivazov - were summoned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR, Azerbaijan) in the context of attack on them on December 15.

The Moscow House of Journalists hosted a ceremony of awarding the first premium of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) in the area of human rights defence for 2009. Natalia Estemirova, a human rights defender and employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was posthumously awarded "for the courage demonstrated in defence of human rights."