News

The rally of nationalists scheduled for February 11 in Manege Square in Moscow was prevented by large forces of police and interior troops of the Russian MIA.

In the evening on February 10, unidentified persons blew up and then shelled an Ural truck carrying a unit of internal troops of the Russian MIA on the highway Kizlyar-Korinovka in Dagestan, a source from law enforcement bodies of the Kizlyar District has reported.

The head of the Astrakhan customs post and two of his subordinates are suspected of abuse of service power and systematic bribe-taking. This was announced today by Vladimir Markin, official spokesman of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation.

Mukhazhir Evloev, father of Magomed Evloev, who is considered to be the executor of the terror act at the Moscow "Domodedovo" Airport on January 24, asserts that his detained children - Akhmed, 16, and Fatima, 22, - did not know about their brother's plans to commit a terror act. This was reported by Timur Akiev, head of the Ingush office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Alexander Prutsakov, deputy chairman of the Volgodonsk City Duma, who filed late last year a lawsuit against the newspaper "Nashe Vremya" (Our Time) and its own correspondent in Volgodonsk Natalia Shelimova, has lost the litigation. As reported by Vera Yuzhanskaya, editor of the paper, the judge rejected the deputy's claim in full.

Specialists of the Department for Dagestan of the Russian FSB have neutralized an explosive device planted near the mosque in Akushinskiy Street in Makhachkala.

In central Moscow an action took place "We say: no fascism on Russian soil!" The participants laid flowers at the Unknown Soldier's Tomb.

The illegal armed formations (IAFs) in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) count about one thousand members; the number does not go down, because youngsters replenish it, said Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the NCFD, who is taking part in the sitting of the State Council held in the city of Ufa.

Today, at 2 p.m. in front of the Parliament of Georgia, refugees held a rally, where the announced their demands to President Mikhail Saakashvili. The internally displaced persons (IDPs) demand to provide housing for them in areas, where they van find employment.

The organizers and participants of the picket in support of Article 19 of the Russian Constitution in the city of Temryuk, Krasnodar Territory, appealed to the head of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) and regional prosecutor on illegitimate, in their opinion, actions of law enforcers during the action on February 9.

On February 9, Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), said, when meeting students in Nalchik, that the main reason for the spread of religious extremism and terrorism is the growth of corruption as a result of "essential deficiencies of the authorities, both regional and federal."

As reported by the Chief Department (CD) of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), over 20 rescuers are now searching Sergey Bashkirov, 23, a skier from the town of Korolyov near Moscow, who was covered by an avalanche on Mount Cheget near Elbrus.

On February 9, Vladimir Markin, spokesman of the Russian Investigatory Committee, announced that 200 jewellery items stolen from the casualties' house were detected in the house of an acquaintance of Roman Gubarev, a suspect of killing eight people in Stavropol.

According to a source from law enforcement bodies, the fourth suspect of organizing the terror act in "Domodedovo" Airport on January 24 - Bashir Khamkhoev, a resident of Ingushetia, has been already arrested by the court.

On February 9, residents of the aul of Inzhichishkho made an appeal to the nations of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KCR), Coordination Board of National Associations of Karachay-Cherkessia, and Circassian public organizations of North-Caucasian republics with notification about the rally, where they want to demand from the leadership of the republic and NCFD to investigate the murders of Aslan Zhukov, one of the leaders of Circassian youth, and Fral Shebzukhov, an adviser of the KCR President.

The three explosions that occurred in the evening on February 8 in two districts of Grozny, the Chechen capital, were not terror acts. In one case a grenade blew up, while the two other explosions could be just of everyday origin, sources from power structures of Chechnya believe.

Shortly before his death, Magomed Gamzatov, one of the leaders of the Didoy ethnic minority residing in Dagestan received a letter from the administration of the President of Russia. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by a relative of Gamzatov.

Two women-residents of Chechnya, whose relatives thought them to have been kidnapped, were found by Chechen law enforcers in North Ossetia. Such incidents, according to a MIA officer, are used by some media and human rights organizations for allegations that kidnappings continue in Chechnya.

The office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny was approached by Magomed Edilov, 51, a local resident and a friend of a resident of the Moscow Region, who perished in a special operation in Chechnya. Mr Edilov complained of being harassed by FSB agents.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg fined Russia to a sum of 160 thousand euros for disappearance and death of residents of Chechnya Movsar and Movladi Nasukhanovs and Magomed Dudarov in 2002.