News

At about midday, at the exit from Magas, the service car of Yusup Kostoev, a Deputy of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia, was stopped. Three men armed with submachine guns, one of them in mask, without presenting themselves, asked Kostoev to show documents. Then they fled with the documents on his car.

In Moscow, an officer of one of special police units, after a traffic conflict, beat to death an elderly taxi driver, a native of Azerbaijan. Eyewitnesses of the incident state that the casualty had no knife, as had been earlier claimed by the policeman.

The three Swedish journalists were detained in Baku on Sunday, April 17, when they watched the protest of the opposition. The Azerbaijani State Migration Service told them that they had violated the visa regime.

Today, at the trial about the attack on Nalchik, undertaken on October 13, 2001, the defendant Azamat Akhkubekov announced a statement that a group of defendants was ready to go on hunger strike as of tomorrow in protest against removal by the SIZO administration of the refrigerators and TV-sets, which had been bought by inmates' relatives. The statement was signed by 24 defendants.

Today, the Moscow City Court has dismissed a petition to dissolve the jury, which considers the murder case of lawyer Stanislav Markelov. The jurors retired to the jury room for passing the verdict on the case.

On April, 17, eighteen mothers in Volgograd who had participated in a three-day hunger strike demanding free enrollment of their children in kindergartens have stopped their action of protest. The authorities of the region formed a working group for solving the problem.

Judge Alexander Zamashnyuk, chairing the trial on the murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, has dismissed the petition lodged by Alexei Nikulochkin, defendants' advocate, on judge disqualification. The judge explained his decision by saying that a judge challenge should be petitioned prior to formation of the jury.

Azerbaijani police detained 65 participants of an unauthorized action in Baku which had been planned by a number of oppositional parties, law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan report.

According to official data from the web-site of Astrakhan regional Government, Alexander Zhilkin, Governor of Astrakhan region, earned one and a half million rubles last year.

In Sochi, four fixed-route taxi drivers who held strike against free transportation of privileged passengers were subjected to administrative arrest.

Today, Egle Kusaite, a citizen of Lithuania, accused of preparing a terror act in the territory of Russia, has filed a lawsuit with a demand to stop tapping her telephone conversations.

Vitaly Ivanov, one of those accused of murdering 12 persons in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, has confessed that in September 2003 he killed two entrepreneurs, acting together with his accomplice.

On April 15, the Russian Theatre of Makhachkala hosted an official presentation of the world's first multilingual social network Godudu.com.

At the rally of fire victims held in Tskhinvali an attack was made on human rights defender Vissarion Aseev, runs the message that arrived today from South Ossetia to the SMS-service of the "Caucasian Knot".

On the eve of the rally in Baku, appointed by the Azerbaijani opposition for April 17 with a demand of democratic reforms, the international human rights organization Amnesty International has urged the Azerbaijani authorities not to admit any police's attack on peaceful demonstrators.

The participants of the rally, which started today in the capital of South Ossetia at 11 a.m., want to get money from regional authorities to build new houses; their homes burnt down during the August 2008 war.

In Ingushetia, the central part of the city of Nazran is blocked. Many streets are patrolled by power agents in masks with firearms; the city is full of armoured vehicles, local residents say.

As stated by the operative headquarters (OHQ) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), since April 16, because of continuing threat of subversive and terror acts, the republic keeps all its mountain resorts near Elbrus closed for tourists.

The rain that poured on Astrakhan on April 12-13 flooded the main streets and houses of residents who live in their private houses in the low areas of the city. The city administration has sent 28 special vehicles to pumping water from the streets. The problem is aggravated since the city has no storm sewer system.

The Georgian Labour Party has moved a legislative initiative assuming a large-scale amnesty in the country.