News

Today, the report of the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) "Anatomy of Impunity: Unsolved Murders of Journalists in Russia" was made public in Moscow; mostly, the report is on Northern Caucasus.

An official note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Venezuela about recognition of independence of the Republic of Abkhazia was served to the Abkhazian delegation, which is on its official visit to Venezuela. This was reported today by the press service of the MFA of Abkhazia.

Yesterday, on September 14, the Tbilisi City Court considered the case on the so-called "Mukhrovani mutiny". 34 defendants have admitted their guilt of disobedience to the order of the commander of Mukhrovani battalion, when they refused to go out for preparing for the Georgia's Independence Day. Disobedience to the commander's order is punished under part 2, Article 316 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

Last year, the number of registered facts of trafficking in people in Azerbaijan was 394, and in the first six months of this year already 250 such cases were recorded. This was reported by Araz Babaev, senior operative officer of the MIA, at a seminar on the problems of trafficking in humans.

Plenty of refugees from Georgia seek asylum in Poland. According to the Polish Department for Foreigners' Matters, every day about 100 citizens of Georgia apply for granting a refuge; they try to enter the country through the Polish-Belarus border check point in Terespol, a railway junction on the Polish side near Brest.

Kidnappings continue in Ingushetia. On September 5, employees of some unknown power agencies kidnapped Magomed Oziev, 23, a resident of Nesterovskaya village, Sunzha District; and on September 11, Muhammad Syuleimanov, 36, a resident of the city of Malgobek, disappeared. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by relatives of the missing persons.

Lieutenant Colonel Mukhtar Agaev, an officer of the Dagestan Department of the Russian Federal Service for Drug Trafficking Control (RFSDTC) is accused of organizing an illegal armed formation (IAF) and attempt on the life of Shamil Isaev, a Deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan.

New terror acts committed by suicide bombers; recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Venezuela; visit of the Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of September 7-13 in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Kidnappings in Dagestan are committed not so much with the aim to liquidate some particular person, but sooner to assess the readiness of the respective Muslim community to resolute actions after disappearance of its member, and to further aggravate the situation in the republic. This is the opinion of Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the Dagestan newspaper "Chernovik".

The issue of opening the Tbilisi-Sukhumi bus route is not considered by Abkhazia and will hardly be considered in the immediate perspective. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Ruslan Kishmariya, plenipotentiary representative of Abkhazian President in the Gali District, who made his comments on Georgia's intention to offer Abkhazia to start such bus route.

The so-called "execution list", recently disseminated in Dagestan, hardly has anything to do with the recent murders of human rights defenders. This is the opinion of Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the Dagestan-based newspaper "Chernovik", who is also on the list.

The law enforcement bodies have not managed yet to identify the terrorist-suicide bomber who blew himself up in the morning on September 12 in central Grozny and heavily wounded three local militiamen.

After the earthquake at night on September 8, six 5-storied apartment blocks in the city of Kvaisa, Dzhava District of South Ossetia, are in unsafe condition. Ten private cottages are also unfit for residence. People have to live in tents.

In the opinion of leading Russian political scientists, accession of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Russia is the least probable scenario of developments.

In Ingushetia, in the city of Nazran, in the district "Tsentr-Kamaz", unidentified persons assassinated Azamat Bersanov, an inspector of the Investigatory Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ingushetia.

Leila Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), has addressed Araz Guseinov, a judge of the Sabail District Court of Baku, with an appeal to objectively consider the case of bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade and to become "the first fair Azerbaijani judge."

Zhanna Shamsudinova, the wife of Magomed Sheikhov, a resident of Makhachkala, who disappeared on September 9 under strange circumstances, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that her husband had been thoroughly shadowed by unidentified persons for a long time.

The majority of the persons arrested for the mutiny at the military base of the Ministry of Defence of Georgia in Mukhrovani have recognized their guilt. This was reported by Gela Nikolaishvili, advocate of one of the defendants.

One of the casualties of the special operation conducted today in the morning in Makhachkala is Bagautdin Kamalutdinov, leader of the armed underground acting in the city and nephew of Magomed Bagautdinov, ideologist of Dagestan militants. This was reported by the Department of the FSB (DFSB) for Dagestan.

In Kalmykia, the inquiry has revealed that the money in the sum of 5.705 million roubles, raised for rendering help to the victims of the war in South Ossetia, was spent on holding a musical festival.