News

In 2008, Georgian bureaucrats imported weapons into Georgia from Israel under a corruption scheme. Last week, this statement was made by a representative of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Prime Minister of Dagestan Rizvan Kurbanov has promised, when speaking to activists of the human rights NGO "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", to help them in their searched of the young people who had disappeared in the republic. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from Svetlana Isaeva, chair of the "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights".

As reported by Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the acting OSCE Chairman, in 2009, 19 persons perished in the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

On Sunday, March 28, a woman called the Moscow militia and said that an explosion may happen in the metro prepared by residents of Chechnya. Employees of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) with dogs searched the Konkovo metro station but found nothing.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili has signed a resolution about a large-scale pardoning of convicts. This was stated by Giya Arsenishvili, chairman of the parliamentary committee for human rights. It is planned to pardon the prisoners who serve their terms for medium- and light-gravity crimes.

The NGO named "Memorial-Avia" and active in North Ossetia continues searching relatives of the military pilots who perished during the Great Patriotic War (WWII) in fight for the Caucasus.

Today, the defendants in the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005 in Nalchik again disrupted the session by rejecting an advocate replacement.

So far, nobody has taken responsibility for today's explosions in Moscow metro; however, power agencies tend to believe that they were organized by Chechen militants, whose leader Dokku Umarov announced this February that the military action zone would expand over the whole Russia's territory. Umarov stated then that the war would return into Russians' houses; and they would see it not only on TV as reported from somewhere away in the Caucasus. The State Duma believes that it is already the case; and new, more efficient forms and methods of fighting terror should be searched for.

Two brothers, residents of the Chechen city of Shali, were kidnapped by local power agents. Their fate and whereabouts are unknown. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from an activist of a local NGO, who referred to brothers' relatives.

Rescuers brought up 12 bodies of the casualties of the explosion at the Lubyanka metro station, eight of them have been already identified. The list of victims who were hospitalized was published.

The count of casualties of the terror acts committed in Moscow metro has reached 37 persons. Under the latest data, 65 people were injured.

In the Rostov Region, spring high water continues; in many districts the water level is critical; homes are flooded in a number of dwelling settlements.

On March 27 in Volgograd, rallies were held in front of the building of the city mayoralty, where appeals were voiced out to initiate the resignation procedure of the city mayor Roman Grebennikov. The action was organized by communists.

The meeting on March 27 of residents of the city of Gori with Georgian oppositionists took place in tense atmosphere. Zurab Nogaideli, leader of the "Movement for United Georgia", has stated that the reason was in provocations, which had been planned by the authorities.

On March 25, Tbilisi hosted a sitting of the Board of the Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia. In the opinion of the experts, the hostess of the "Imedi" TV Channel Natiya Koberidze had broken the journalistic ethics.

In Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, employees of the local prosecutor's office and militia made a raid over saunas, where, according to their operative data, sexual services were rendered. 65 slot machines were confiscated, and 23 women engaged in prostitution were brought to administrative responsibility.

Protest actions of air traffic controllers against signing new collective labour agreement started on March 26 in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Krasnodar. Today in the morning, after the night shift, all dispatchers of these regions - about 120 persons in total - remained in the buildings where they work.

The Human Rights Society (HRS) "Memorial" calls to amnesty, by the Victory Day, those militaries, who were convicted for voluntary leaving their military units.

The international seminar on non-violent conflict settlement "Overcoming European Crisis by Non-Violent Methods; Philosophy and Practice" held in Georgia became a forum, where experts from different countries could exchange opinions on conflicts in the Caucasus.

In the Volgograd Region, as a result of high water, over three thousand citizens are under the threat of flooding. This was reported by the press services of the Regional Ministry for Emergencies (MfE). Residents of seven districts - Frolovskiy, Mikhailovskiy, Ilovlinskiy, Olkhovskiy, Pallasovskiy, Bykovskiy and Kumylzhanskiy - have already suffered from high water.