News

Corruption and money laundering were the main reasons for detention of Papuna Khachidze, director of the Forest Agency of the Ministry of Ecology of Georgia, and Georgi Bagaturiya, head of the GIS Service of the Forest Agency. This was announced by David Sakvarelidze, General Public Prosecutor of Tbilisi.

Opposition activists and several hundreds of internally displaced persons (forced migrants) held a protest action in front of the Parliament of Georgia. They demanded to stop evicting refugees from the places of their temporary residence in Tbilisi and provide the homeless refugees with housing in the capital.

The militia in Rostov-on-Don continues its work in the emergency mode; however, according to the statement of the Regional GUVD, no serious crimes were registered in the city for the last day. The Rostov State Building University (RSBU) is checking the study achievements of all the students. According to university bosses, student Khasbulat Markhiev, suspected of murdering Maxim Sychov had a lot of absenteeism and poor performance; therefore, he will be expelled from the university.

The fate of the five natives of the Caucasus, who disappeared in Moscow in late September, is still unknown. Their relatives suppose that they were detained by power agents and are kept in some Moscow detention centre. Rights defenders, who have joined the search, found that the cases of three missing persons are run by the military inquiry department, while all the actions on the cases of the remaining two have been suspended. Besides, the story about five missing persons develops further and has transformed into a story about seven detainees.

A fourteen-year-old schoolboy who stubbed a pupil of the ninth form, native of one of the republics of Northern Caucasus, with a knife was detained in the town of Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, a source in law enforcement bodies reported today.

Kadyrov might have been involved in organizing attempts at four of his critics and there is a number of proofs of this in the materials of criminal cases, witness Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya stated at the trial on the accusation of slander at Ramzan Kadyrov against Oleg Orlov, Head of "Memorial" Human Rights Center (HC) on December, 16. Andrey Krasnenkov, Kadyrov's attorney, called this statement slander.

Last night a militia officer in the settlement of Khushet, Dagestan, wounded three of his acquaintances by a shot from a Government-issue pistol during a quarrel, a source in law enforcement bodies of the republic reported.

A freight train was blown up in Derbent district of Dagestan. There is no information of injuries.

Valery Khatazhukov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre, believes the events underway in Moscow in the context of the murder of Yegor Sviridov, a Spartak fan, are elements of the campaign of deliberate grazing Russian youth with their Caucasian counterparts. Murat Khokonov, a member of the Public Chamber of Kabardino-Balkaria, said that many parents already doubt, whether it is reasonable to send their children to universities in other regions of Russia.

On December 15, the Moscow Central House of Journalists held the Journalists' Commemoration Day.

On December 15, the militia detained over 1300 persons and confiscated 16 traumatic pistols, more than 200 knives, hammers and baseball bats, a source from law enforcement bodies of Moscow said today. In total, 37 persons have been attracted to administrative responsibility for various offences.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has considered the complaint lodged by relatives of two persons in Chechnya, who disappeared in 2002 and 2004, and ruled to penalize Russia by 148,000 euros.

On December 10, in the village of Pusyan, the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), policemen beat relatives of Sakhavat Aliev, a former candidate for the Parliament of Azerbaijan from the 2nd Sharur Constituency; the relatives receive no medical assistance, human rights activists say. The authorities deny the fact of beating.

The militia of Rostov-on-Don is working in the strengthened regime in order to prevent possible mass disorders. Within the last 24 hours, 177 persons were detained; traumatic pistols were confiscated from many of them.

The reason of mass disorders in Moscow was not in the murder of Yegor Sviridov, a football fan of "Spartak", but in the absence of the official authorities' response to this crime, said the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while answering questions of Russian citizens live on air.

When answering the questions of the hotline dialogue with the population, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin treated the crime in the village of Kuschevskaya as a "failure of the whole law enforcement system." In his opinion, not only law enforcers but also the local authorities in general shall be made responsible for the crime revelry in the Kuschevskiy District of the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in other criminalized areas of Russia.

Two sanctioned actions against ethnically motivated crimes have been completed tonight in Chistoprudny Boulevard in Moscow without any incidents.

The ballistic examination has established that the sleeves and bullets found in the place of the murder of Anas Pshikhachev in Kabardino-Balkaria were fired from the same firearm, which was used in November this year in Nalchik to assassinate an employee of the FSIN (Federal Punishment Enforcement Agency). This was stated by the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation IC RF).

Next year a program aimed at struggle against forged medications will be launched in Armenia. Their portion in Armenian market currently makes 5-6%, Gukas Ulikhanyan, Chairman of Armenian Pharmaceutical Association, reported on December, 15.

Last night servicemen of federal forces were fired upon by unidentified persons in Urus-Martan district of Chechnya. One of the servicemen was taken to hospital. In Achkhoy-Martan district, too, operations are in process for search of the persons who in the evening of December, 15, fired upon a militia checkpoint, two officers of the Ministry of Interior Affairs were wounded as a result.