News

Explosion took place in Stavropol today, having killed three persons and injured twenty, the law enforcement bodies of the Stavropol region report.

On the evening of May 19, a member of the Ingush human rights organization "Mashr" Hamzat Tsechoev, whom law enforcement officers had sized in his house, was released on recognizance in Magas militia department, where he was kept for more than twenty-four hours, his sister Zarema said.

In the evening of May 25, in Krasnodar, Kuban New Television (NTK) Company reporter Alexander Leonenko got beaten by the unidentified persons. TV journalist's colleagues do not take off this attack relates to his professional activities.

In 2009, sixty persons became victims of trafficking in persons in Armenia against 34 persons in 2008. The data was presented today by the "Resource Centre for Helping to Combat Trafficking" in Yerevan at presentation of the book dealing with the fight against this phenomenon.

Today, in Georgia' capital city, there were staged the military parade timed to the main national holiday - Georgia's Independence Day. The parade was taken by Commander in Chief, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili.

Vladimir Tender, accused of beating the leader of Novorossiysk human rights committee, Major Alexei Dymovsky's lawyer Vadim Karastelev, did not admit his guilt during the preliminary inquiry.

A book by Anzor Maskhadov "My Father - Chechen President" was published in Norway in 3000 copies. The author - the son of Aslan Maskhadov, President of the non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), - told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about his work.

From now on, the five Deputies of the Russian State Duma and the citizens of France, Germany, Slovakia and Argentina, who took part in observing the May 23 parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, are under the entrance ban to Azerbaijan.

The widow of the first Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, in connection with a hunger strike of her son Tsotne Gamsakhurdia in prison, demands a meeting with Georgia's minister of corrections and legal assistance but authorities still refrain from contacts.

On May 24, the Spiritual Department of Moslems (SDM) of North Ossetia accepted the resignation of the Mufti of the Republic Ali-Hadji Evteev. This was reported today by the Ministry on Nationalities' Matters of North Ossetia.

Today at night in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, an unidentified explosive device was triggered. This was reported by the local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

The Nevinnomyssk court of Stavropol region has sentenced a local college student Ilya Kartsev, a former member of the Internet project "Big game. Break the system" to one year imprisonment for extremism and xenophobia. He was found guilty under the article "Incitement of national enmity".

Local experts believe that power agencies have no exact data about the number of militants in the Chechen Republic, but note that not the present number of militants in Northern Caucasus matters, but the way the power agents could cope with small groups of militants.

In Abasha region, west Georgia, the rivers Zana and Anasha overflowed their banks due to torrential rains and flooded the village of Sepieti. On 24 May, authorities declared an emergency in Abasha town.

In Elbrussky district of Kabardino-Balkaria, a road traffic safety inspection car was undermined today; while examining a crime scene, four more explosives were detected, two of them exploded, having injured a militia dog handler.

The Supreme Court of Chechnya has upheld the decision of the Zavodskoy District Court of the city of Grozny, which had recognized the article about Chechnya published by the "Terra" Publishing House in the 58th volume of its "Big Encyclopaedia" as extremist. This was announced by Judge Iskenderova, who chaired the session.

Opening of the Centre for Contemporary Art "Tobacco House" was held in Rostov-on-Don on 24 May within the framework of the first South-Russian Biennale of Contemporary Art in the Don capital. Experts admit that such a large-scale display of contemporary artworks takes place for the first time here. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has attended the Center opening ceremony.

On May 24, first participants of the 12th all-Russian exhibition of breeder sheep to be solemnly opened on May 28 arrived in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. Delegations from Dagestan, Karachai-Circassia, Rostov Region and Tatarstan have already brought their best animals to the destination.

The Assembly of Tbilisi Armenians is concerned with the "fact of ignoring the interests of the 86-thousand-strong Armenian community in Georgia" at local government elections to be held on May 30.

On May 21, in Chechnya, Isa and Belal Ozdiev - members of the family of well-known Chechen businessmen - Ozdiev brothers were detained. The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports with reference to eyewitnesses of the incident that the brothers were beaten at detention.