News

Today, the Supreme Court of Dagestan held its last session on the murder case of Farid Babaev, a public figure, a human rights activist and the leader of the regional branch of the "Yabloko" party. The prosecution asked for the convicted murder 16 years of colony with a strict regime. The judge will find the final verdict for Rasil Mamedrizaev on Thursday, June 3.

Aggravation of situation in Kabardino-Balkaria; resonant terror act in Stavropol; elections to local governments in Georgia, - look these and other events in the review of the week from May 24 to May 30, 2010, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

"On 28 May, a student of one of the Chechen institutions of higher education was seized in the center of Grozny by the republican law enforcement officers", an NGO representative in Chechnya told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".

Under preliminary data of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia, after tabulation of ballot papers from 774 polling stations, the incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava, who is representing the party in power "United National Movement", is in the lead of the new election race. He has won 55.23 percent of votes. The runner-up is Irakli Alasaniya (19.5 percent), and Giorgi Chanturiya is in the third position (10.71 percent).

Workers of Chechen mass media were recommended to "reorient themselves" and "truthfully and objectively cover the events underway in the republic without silencing and concealing negative phenomena" - this was the task put in front of the heads of local mass media by Shamsail Saraliev, Minister on Foreign Relations, National Policy, Press and Information of Chechnya.

On May 13 in Ingushetia, employees of unidentified power agencies kidnapped Magomed Musaevich Garbakov, a resident of Sagopshi village, Malgobek District of the republic.

Activists of the initiative group "Electrozink. What do we breathe in?" held a picket near the building of the local Rospotrebnadzor (Russian Federal Agency for Consumer Supervision) in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, in protest against the amicable agreement concluded by the agency with the "Electrozink" Factory.

Mikhail Sova, 47, a resident of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, who happened to be on March 7 in the area, where a special operation aimed to neutralize suspected militant Valery Etezov was conducted, was wounded by an occasional bullet. Now, he went to the Nalchik City Court.

Several districts of Rostov-on-Don were captured by hurricane accompanied by big hailstones. The calamity blocked the traffic; many cars were damaged by hailstones.

The Russian ICPO has initiated criminal cases against the officials of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of the Stavropol Territory, who had demonstrated their negligence in preparation for the concert at the local Palace of Culture. This was announced by Vladimir Markin, official spokesman of the ICPO.

Valuable trees were felled in the territory of the regional-value nature monument named "Upper Reach of Pshekha and Pshekhashko Rivers" causing the damage of 97.4 million roubles.

The NGO named "Georgian Emigrants" demands better life for Georgian emigrants and their families and announces that from May 29 on they start sitting protest actions in front of the parliament. Activists of the organization accuse authorities of inattention and threaten to go on hunger strike.

Children and teenagers of Adygea will be forbidden appear at night in public places without their parents.

The Division for Especially Important Cases of the Investigatory Department of the Russian ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) for the Krasnodar Territory has sent to the Regional Court the criminal case about the series of explosions committed in Sochi in 2008-2009 and other crimes, as a result of which 14 persons perished and 20 more were wounded. Ilya Galkin, a former militiaman, and Mikhail Denisenko, an employee of a TV company, are accused of these crimes.

The international human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) has addressed its appeal to the official Brussels stating that violations of human rights, first of all in Northern Caucasus, and restrictions of the freedom of self-expression should be put on the debate agenda of the forthcoming Summit the European Union-Russian Federation, to open on May 30 in Rostov-on-Don.

Under decision of the Emergency Commission under the Government of the Astrakhan Region, the state of emergency has been introduced in the whole territory of the region because of a threat of locust invasion.

Today, Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NGFD), told journalists that because of failure to take due security measures in Stavropol, where the explosion on May 26 killed 7 persons, he ordered to open criminal cases on service negligence.

Telo Tulku Rinchope, Supreme Llama of Kalmykia, addressed his open letter to Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, in the context of the refusal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Russia to give an entrance visa to Dalai Lama for visiting Russia. Mr Rinchope assures Mr Lavrov that Dalai Lama's relations with the Russian Buddhists have never had any political shading.

A singer from Georgia Sofiko Nizharadze has entered the ten of best performers and qualified for the final of "Eurovision-2010".

A branch of the Movement "In the Name of Georgia", which unites Georgian Diasporas of 53 regions of Russia, aiming to achieve, through charitable and cultural actions, closer relations of Russian and Georgian peoples, will be opened un North Ossetia.