News

In Dagestan, a project is launched of a new multilingual social network GODUDU.COM, which uses a translation technology that will allow users who speak different languages to communicate with each other in their native languages. According to the designers, the network should become a public discussion platform - a number of Dagestani officials have already opened their posts there. The GODUDU.COM has no pre-moderation.

After publication of the interview of Alexander Khloponin, Russian President's Plenipotentiary in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), which he gave to the "Caucasian Knot" and "Gazeta.ru", a number of politicians and businessmen launched an online polemics with him. The blogosphere also could not remain indifferent to Mr Khloponin's statements.

In Moscow, the court has sentenced a Muscovite Vladislav Khakhanov to a conditional term for participation in the pogroms in Manege Square on December 11, 2010. For beating in the metro a man of non-Slavic appearance he was sentenced to conditional imprisonment for a term of six months with one-year probation.

Patu Abdullaeva, a resident of Dagestan, complains about bribe extortions at local medical institutions. She has reported about it to the "Caucasian Knot" by means of the new SMS-service. The hospital denied the allegations; and Zoya Magomedova, head of the medical department of the Dagestani Ministry of Public Health, said that nobody had complained about any facts of this sort.

Head of the police of the Kaitag District Lieutenant-Colonel Abdurashid Bibulatov accuses local authorities of gross embezzlements and concealment of serious criminal offences. The acting head of the district denies the charges, while the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has no information on the topic.

The Petrovskiy District Court of the Stavropol Territory has sentenced a woman-resident of Svetlograd to 1.5 years of conditional imprisonment for false reports about impending explosions.

Vasily Mikheev, ex-Head of Semikarakorsk urban settlement of Rostov region, has been convicted for abuse of authority which caused damages to a sum of over one million rubles.

Currently, Armenian penitentiary institutions (PIs) are severely overcrowded, which leads to deterioration of custody conditions and increase of death rate there, human rights defenders and politicians of Armenia assert.

Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) awarded the "Human Rights" prize to a Russian non-governmental organization "Committee Against Torture" of Nizhny Novgorod for investigations of crimes in Chechnya. The respective decision was officially announced on April, 12, within the framework of the spring session of the organization in Strasbourg.

An audit conducted by investigating bodies of the ICRF (Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation) for the Astrakhan Region at the Raznochinovskiy orphanage-boarding school in the context of reports about multiple deaths of pupils found no evidences of crime.

On April, 13, the Committee for assistance to adaptation of persons who decided to stop terrorist and extremist activities in the territory of Dagestan to peaceful life adopted an appeal to the Supreme Court and Public prosecutor's office of the republic to reduce preventive punishment for four citizens of Kazakhstan arrested for participation in paramilitary groups in the territory of Dagestan.

A mass scuffle with the use of firearms took place on April, 13, in the settlement of Jimikent, Derbent district of Dagestan. One person was killed, three more got wounded.

The Parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria has introduced a law in draft to the State Duma suggesting to cancel the clause of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation according to which a citizen is exempted from liability "for concealment of a crime committed by his of her spouse or close relative not promised beforehand".

The Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don found Vladimir Bagin, a local resident, guilty of willingly false reports about terror acts and sentenced him to a real term in prison, said the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Rostov Region.

The main concern issues of Georgian citizens are employment problems, utility tariffs and the low level of democracy in their country. This was confirmed by published materials of the public opinion research conducted in major cities across the whole country by the Caucasian Centre of Research Resources under the order of the US' National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The discussion at the presentation of the report of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" entitled "New Magomedov's Course?" ran about the growth of terrorism in the country and continued human rights violations; however, the authorities' attempts to start dialogue with human rights defenders were also noted. The event was held at the Independent Media Centre.

According to indirect evidences, Dokku Umarov, leader of the "Imarat Kavkaz", is most likely alive, said Anatoly Safonov, special representative the Russian President for matters of international cooperation in combating terrorism and organized crime.

On April 10, relatives of and sympathizers to the natives of Dagestan, accused of raping and kept in custody for more than two years, held a protest action against protraction of the investigation.

Suicide bombers again blow them up in Northern Caucasus; unpleasant weather surprises paralyze life in the Krasnodar Territory; in Ingushetia, former deputy minister miraculously survives an attempt, - look these and other events in the review of the week of April 4-10, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On April 12, head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made some reshuffling in his government and appointed Khadizha Dulaeva to the post of the first deputy head of the administration and Chechen government. Changes were made among top managers of a number of ministries and agencies.