News

Today in Moscow, in Chistye Prudy, at the monument to Alexander Griboedov, a picket was held in memory of the leader of Chechen separatists Aslan Maskhadov.

In Dagestan, experts have established the type and power of the bomb that was triggered in the evening on March 11 on the railway in Makhachkala. The power of the bomb was 2 kilos of trotyl equivalent.

Today, another hearing was held in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on the criminal case initiated against journalists of the local weekly "Chernovik", accused of kindling national, racial and religious enmity.

Today, competitions were held in the Dagestan village of Khadzhalmakhi, where three persons have broken world records in lifting weights attacked to hair, pulling up on a horizontal bar on one hand and keeping a 24-kilo weight by one leg.

Lawyers do not believe, while waiting for the Constitutional Court (CC) of the Russian Federation to consider the conformity to the Constitution of the amendments made by the State Duma in the end of 2008 in the Russian Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) and concerning the trial by jury for those accused of especially grave crimes, that the right to be tried by jurymen will be returned.

In the afternoon on March 11, house No. 2 in the Tsoroev Street in Nazran, belonging to the Ingush oppositionist Magomed Khazbiev, was visited by Ibragim Aushev, an inspector of the GOVD (Chief Interior Department), with reinforcement of power agents. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Mr Khazbiev himself.

Editors of mass media, ready to provide room to candidates for the Sochi City Assembly (SCA), and city dwellers gave their comments on the way the election campaign was covered. Both groups noted restriction of the freedom of speech and opinion in the course of campaigning.

In the city of Argun, Chechen Republic, Akhyad Musanigov, head of the territorial militia district, was wounded by an explosion. This was reported today by the Republic's Department of the ICPO.

The planned today's session on Fatima Margieva, a teacher of the South-Ossetian State University, accused of firearm and explosive illegal purchase and storage, has been postponed till March 18. The reason is in the problems with the stay in Tskhinvali of Margieva's lawyer, who is from Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia).

As stated at a press conference on March 11 by Grigol Tabatadze, ambassador of Georgia to Armenia, by having reopened the border check point "Verkhni Lars", Georgia sacrificed a lot and did it, first of all, to preserve good neighbourhood relations with Armenia.

Employees of the Tsentralny ROVD of Sochi returned the application lodged by the Sochi community of Jehovah's Witnesses on the fact of an attack on the hall for religious assemblies. They explained their refusal to open a case by the absence of data about material damage.

The Orthodox worship cross installed in the memorial to the Cossacks who perished in the Civil War near Dakhovskaya village in Adygea, which was desecrated on March 5, will be restored. This was stated by the Maikop and Adygea Eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church. So far, law enforcement bodies try to find out the circumstances of the crime.

On March 10, two residents of the Chechen Republic, earlier members of armed separatists' groupings, were convicted to long imprisonment terms for murdering three federal soldiers in 2002.

Khaibula Khaibulaev, a resident of Karat village, Akhvakh District of Dagestan, has received a letter from the department of own safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia saying that the fact of his beating on August 16, 2009, was not properly investigated by Labazan Derbishev, head of the investigation search of the Botlikh District; therefore, "an additional check was entrusted to the department of own safety of the MIA of Dagestan.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov held a meeting in Grozny with Sultan Mirzaev, Chairman of the local Spiritual Department of Moslems, and Adam Shakhidov, Director of the Information-Publishing Centre "Puts" (Way) named after Ahmat Kadyrov. In the course of the meeting, Mr Kadyrov expressed his serious discontent that the call to pray (azan) is made in the mosques of the republic not at the same time, but with essential time gaps.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia is actively negotiating with respective bodies in Germany aiming to take home the body of citizen of Georgia David Mardiani, 17, who committed suicide on March 7 in a prison hospital in Germany.

Today, President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov forbade the relatives of Mikail Pliev, 32, a resident of Plievo village, who was kidnapped on March 4 in Pyatigorsk, to continue their marathon rally with a demand to find Mikail's whereabouts. The relatives had been earlier invited to the President.

Magomed Mutsolgov, an Ingush human rights activist, a member of the Expert's Board at the Office of Russian Ombudsman, has stated that the cases of prejudiced attitude to natives from Northern Caucasus in army units have become more frequent recently. He told about two complaints lodged by residents of Ingushetia, who are concerned of the fates of their relatives.

The detainee, suspected of attacking Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee on Human Rights and representative of Alexei Dymovskiy, former Major of Novorossisk militia, asserts that he just tried to help, while the human rights activist beat him with a wooden block. According to Karastelyov, the suspect gave this evidence in the course of confrontation.

Liquidation of Said Buryatskiy, militants' ideologist in Northern Caucasus; trial of Fatima Margieva, an activist of the People's Party of South Ossetia; protests of residents of Ingushetia and Dagestan against continued kidnappings and torture, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of March 1-7, 2010, in Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".