News

Raffi Ovannisyan, leader of the oppositional "Heritage" Party, who went on hunger strike a week ago in Armenia, is going to continue his protest action, aimed at promoting the freedom principles as long as his health permits. He has stated it today at a press conference organized under the open sky in Freedom Square in Yerevan.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, after introduction of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime in the Elbrus District region of the republic, tourism facilities in the Elbrus area are idling, namely, more than 30 private hotels and ministerial recreation bases and ski resorts. The losses of entrepreneurs are already in hundreds of millions roubles.

The Muftiat of Chechnya will try to clarify the fates of the federal soldiers, who had been recruited from the Urals and then disappeared during the warfare in the territory of the republic. This was reported by the spokesman of the local Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM). According to an activist of a local NGO, these attempts are doomed to failure.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs of Ingushetia is searching for Malika Turazova, native of Chechnya, resident of the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, born in 1987, who left home on March, 11, and it is unknown where she went. According to the information available, Turazova may be used as a suicide bomber.

On March, 21, several hundred residents of Armavir, Armenia, blocked Yerevan – Armavir highway as a sign of protest against the results of election of Mayor of the town.

The youth organization of the “Georgian Party” started an action of protest demanding to pull down the firing ground near the monastery complex “David Garegi”. Officials of the Georgian Ministry of Defense declared that the firing ground constituted no danger for the historical memorial.

As a result of a storm of a house in the settlement of Kani, Kuli district of Dagestan, where there were three supposed gunmen suspected of involvement in an assault at a bailiff committed on March, 21, two of them were killed.

At the tournament in Makhachkala, the Russian national team defeated their Iranian counterparts in the final and won the World Cup in Freestyle Wrestling. The score of the final was 5:2 for Russian; the bronze medal went to Azerbaijan, which beat Uzbekistan 6:1.

Georgia is ready to continue its constructive dialogue with Russia on its membership in the WTO, said Nino Kalandadze, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, at a briefing. According to her story, the next round of talks will take place over the next six weeks.

The party of the prosecution has no official information that the witness Ilya Goryachev, who had given evidences against the persons accused of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, refused from his words, as reported by Vladimir Zherebenkov, who is representing the parents of the deceased journalist.

Rights defenders are not satisfied with the investigation into the murder of their colleague Natalia Estemirova. Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the "Civil Assistance" Committee, said that the initially taken direction in the inquiry – against top Chechen officials – later was frozen.

In the near future a strong earthquake is probable in Northern Caucasus, said Evgeny Rogozhin, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the Institute for Earth's Physics.

According to the information from the republican Election committee, representatives of five parties: “United Russia”, “Fair Russia”, “Patriots of Russia”, KPRF and “Pravoye Delo” (“Rightful Cause”) will be members of the People's Assembly of Dagestan.

Today the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria at a trial on the case of an attack at Nalchik on October, 13, 2005, prolonged the custody term for the defendants for three more months. For two of the defendants who had been released on their own recognizance this preventive punishment remained the same.

Pupils of comprehensive schools are not allowed to take mobiles to classes. The teachers consider this decision right while many schoolchildren and their parents stick to the opposite opinion.

Law enforcement officers established identity of the two men killed during a special operation in Makhachkala on March, 19, Informational center of National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) reports. They had been preliminarily recognized as members of Khasavyurt group of gunmen.

On March 19, activists held a picket in Astrakhan in defence of Vladimir Kvachkov, a former GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) colonel, accused of preparing an armed rebellion and terrorism. The protesters treated the actions of the authorities as repressions.

Today, at about 12:00 a.m. on Cape Vidny in the resort city of Sochi, Krasnodar Region, Gayane Antonova, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for North Caucasus", was detained.

The Party "Right Cause" will get, after vote re-tabulation, one mandate in the National Assembly of Dagestan, said the press service of the party. The Deputy from the party in the parliament will be Magomed Shabanov, head of the Regional Branch of the "Right Cause".

Today, Marat Zokaev, born in 1980, an earlier convicted resident of the village of Kashkatau, Cherek District of Kabardino-Balkaria, was killed in this village.