News

The Georgian party has noted no special movements of Russian and South-Ossetian militaries after the decision of President of South Ossetia to close the border; local residents continue to cross the border, although the situation remains restless.

At a meeting with journalists dated to the first anniversary of the August events in South Ossetia, Grigoriy Karassin, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia had offered Georgia, through international intermediaries, to sign a document entailing prohibition of warfare in the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but Georgia refused to sign it.

Mother of Agasif Shakiroglu, chairman of the youth coalition "Khedef" (Aim), who was arrested on August 3 in Baku, believes that her son has fallen victim of a "pre-planned provocation."

Representatives of the family of journalist Anna Politkovskaya ask the Moscow Regional Military Court to return the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" back to the Prosecutor's Office. The same demand was moved by the state accusation; the defence has also supported the petition.

The overwhelming majority of Russian citizens - 86 percent - believe that Russia was right, or sooner right than wrong, during the war in South Ossetia in August 2008. This data was presented at a press conference held in the press centre of the RIA "Novosti" by Olga Kamenchuk, Director for Communications of the All-Russian Centre for Studying Public Opinion (known as VTsIOM), who summed up the results of the recent poll.

The today's appointment of Vadim Brovtsev as a new prime minister of South Ossetia is Eduard Kokoity's personal initiative; and the Kremlin has nothing to do with it, asserts Albert Dzhussoev, one of the major opponents of President of South Ossetia. He is very critical towards this choice, saying that today "is not the time to make experiments on the sick body of poor South Ossetia."

The editor-in-chief of the Internet resource "Ingushetia.Org" Rosa Malsagova has stated that she is receiving threats and can leave her post.

Today at midnight, the border of South Ossetia with Georgia will be closed, as declared by Eduard Kokoity, President of the republic, who has explained it "by recent frequent provocations from the Georgian party," and instances of "swine flu" in Georgia.

Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, has demanded from militia to stop issuing the so-called "trickster" license plates to car owners, asserting that these drivers are most often breaking the traffic rules and provoke accidents. This was reported today by the press service of the territorial administration.

Attempt on Isa Yamadaev - a member of the family, which is opposing the clan of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov; announcement by Ahmed Zakaev, former emissary of Chechen separatists and representative of the government of the non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), of moratorium on warfare by militants; escalation in the area of Georgian-Ossetian conflict; progress in relations of the authorities and opposition in Georgia and a viewpoint thereon of US Vice-President Joe Biden; update of the "Madrid principles" of settling the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh - look up these and other events in the review of the week from July 27 to August 2 prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On August 3, at the court session in Nalchik on the events on October 13, 2005, an anonymous witness hidden under a pseudonym of "Alexander Semyonov", a fighter of a special-purpose militia unit (known as "OMSN") of the Kabardino-Balkarian MIA, gave his evidence.

On August 3, the Lazarevskoe District Court of Sochi satisfied the claims for damage compensation lodged by ten young men, who were beaten by Sochi OMON (Special Militia) fighters in July 2006. To victims will get from 10 to 50 thousand roubles.

The unlucky killer of Isa Yamadaev, who tried to kill him on July 28 in Moscow, had once been his security guard, and, according to a source close to the Yamadaev family, was suborned to murder his former boss during his vacations spent in Chechnya.

On August 3, during the visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), independent journalists of the region were not let to the opening ceremonies of a number of social and economic objects.

As reported by the Georgian TV Company "Imedi", Russian militaries have detained 20 Georgians in the village of Otobaya, located on the Georgian-Abkhazian border.

Today, at about 4 p.m. local time, Arman Babadzhanyan, editor-in-chief of the oppositional newspaper "Zhamanak" (Time) was released ahead of schedule from his imprisonment in Armenia. Emma Gabrielyan, coordinator of "Zhamanak", told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to her story, Arman Babadzhanyan is going to hurry up with his treatment; in particular, he needs a surgery.

Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the public charitable organization for helping refugees and forced migrants "Civil Assistance" and the head of the network "Migration and Law" of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who worked with the employee of the Chechen office of the HRC "Memorial" Natalia Estemirova on the last day of her life said that they discussed the issue of extrajudicial executions and punishments that take place in Chechnya with officials of power agencies of the republic.

By returning 11 years ago of Adugs-refugees from Kosovo Russia had improved its image in the world, as the cases, when expelled nations are brought home by the governments of the countries, from where they had been expelled, are unique, as stated by the first President of Adygea Aslan Dzharimov during celebrating on August 1 of the Repatriate's Day in Maikop, the capital of Adygea.

Stepan Safaryan, an MP from the parliamentary faction "Heritage" has sent an open letter to President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan asking him to release the veteran of the Karabakh War Sargis Atspanyan. He argues that the prisoner's father is dying.

The MIA of Chechnya has reported that during the incident on August 2 in Sharoy District, where an attack on motorcade with militiamen was accomplished, militants initially shelled the cars from grenade launchers, and then from automatic firearms. The MIA has also named five perished militiamen.