News

The aim of the unidentified criminals, who on February 18 murdered a group of tourists from Moscow in Kabardino-Balkaria, could be the daughter of former FSB head Nikolai Patrushev. The Russian Security Council has already stated that one of the casualties - Irina Patrusheva - was a namesake of the former FSB boss.

On Sunday, February 20, several soldiers were assassinated in a military unit of the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan. According to unofficial information, one of the soldiers shot six of his comrades and then shot himself.

According to the latest data, after the attack on the house of two women in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, a 5-year-old girl was hospitalized with a wound in the chest. Now, she is in grave condition.

At the Moscow City Court, where the consideration of the murder case of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova has started today, the defendants Nikita Tikhonov and Evgenia Khasis refused to plead guilty.

Currently, two other Georgian citizens are kept in South Ossetia; while residents of the latter are also kept in custody in Georgia. The Georgian party will continue talks on exchange.

The citizens of South Ossetia, who were released today by the Georgian party side, were kept ignorant about their liberation from Georgia prisons until they were brought to the border with South Ossetia. They told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and claimed that they had not committed the crimes, for which they were convicted in the territory of Georgia.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by a well-informed source that tonight unidentified persons have killed Ramazan Friev, head of the village administration of Khasanya.

In the honour of the Day of Homeland's Defender, residents of Pyatigorsk and several other cities of the Stavropol Territory made an extreme climb on Mount Beshtau.

In the context of the current strained situation in Kabardino-Balkaria, it was decided to close all the ski courses on slopes of Mount Elbrus: Alpine skiing is stopped; and all tourist groups are prohibited to go en route.

On February 19, in the city of Ipatovo, Stavropol Territory, a rally demanded fair elections of the head of their municipality formation.

In the capital of Dagestan, near the house of Ali Akhmedov, head of the city's UVD (Interior Department), a sniper opened fire on two militiamen. One of them was wounded, and the second managed to escape in an armoured shelter, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Mairbek Agaev from the Dagestani edition named "Chernovik".

Valery Kuznetsov, Prosecutor of the Rostov Region, has passed a warning to the organization named the "Don Cossack Republic", existing since 2008, but unregistered by regional justice, about inadmissibility of extremist activity - for their initiative of an uprising and creation of a new entity within the Russian Federation.

The ropeway "Azau-Stary Krugozor" on Mount Elbrus was undermined by unidentified culprits, as reported by a source from local law enforcement bodies. According to his story, nobody was hurt by the explosion.

On February 18, Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, signed a memorandum of understanding with Armenia on provision of macro-financial help amounting to 100 million euros. Of these, 65 million will be provided as a credit, and 35 million - in the form of a grant.

Within the first month of operation, more than seventy residents of Dagestan have addressed for help to the free telephone call desk. So far, most of them call lawyers on their social problems: labour dispute, and documenting benefits and subsidies.

A resident of the Moscow Region was detained for an attempt to disseminate extremist literature in a hotel of Rostov-on-Don.

Relatives of Aslan Zhukov, deputy chairman of the Public Movement "Youth Adyge Khase", have addressed their complaints to the Cherkessk City Court, Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia republic and the Republic's MIA demanding to immediately detain the resident of Karachay-Cherkessia, suspected of murdering Zhukov.

On February 18, in the village of Zayukovo, Baksan District of Kabardino-Balkaria, unidentified persons attacked a Gazel minivan with tourists, killing four of them. All the casualties have been identified; they were three men and a woman.

As stated by Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the Coordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who visited Sochi in connection with the first test races at the ski resort "Rosa Khutor", about 75 percent of construction works of the objects for the 2014 Winter Olympics will be completed by the end of this year.

Yesterday, on February 17, Moscow held an extended discussion of the problems of interethnic relations in modern Russia at the background of recent nationalist actions in Moscow and other Russian cities.