News

Sochi journalist Anastasia Akopyan beaten with threats after she had interviewed Boris Nemtsov, a candidate for Sochi Mayor, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had not received any threats before the incident.

The company, which fails to pay salaries to the crew of the Russian ship "Artemida", now in the Krasnodar Territory at the ship-repair works in the city of Eysk, promised to settle, before April 26, the conflict with the seamen who have announced a hunger strike.

Marina Bottaeva, 20, a resident of Nalchik, addressed human rights organizations with an application that he was blackmailed by a law enforcer named Arsen Iritov, born in 1985, a relative of Naurbi Zhamborov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.

Since September 1, 2009, North Ossetia will seriously toughen requirements to medical centres and dining rooms in educational establishments in order to improve children's nutrition and health control. Now, only about 20 percent of schoolchildren of the republic get proper meals.

Relatives of Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudovs, former defendants in Anna Politkovskaya's murder case, have announced remuneration for any information connected with this crime.

Today, Saipi Mogushkov, 77, former head of the security at the Republic's Clinical Hospital of Ingushetia, who was wounded by unidentified persons in the evening on April 19, has died.

Today, the Moscow Garrison Military Court continued debates on the case of Vladimir Bukreev - the judge who sentenced Colonel Budanov, - now accused of bribe-taking. The state accuser demands 10 years of general regime colony for the defendant, while the defence complains of protracting the litigation.

The OSCE spokesman on freedom of mass media Miklos Harasti has welcomed liberation in Azerbaijan of three journalists from custody and called the authorities of the country to cancel criminal prosecution for defamation.

The Supreme Court of Ingushetia has recognized lawful the refusal to transfer the trial on the case of the death of Magomed Evloev, owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru", from the republic to some other subject of the Russian Federation.

Members of human rights organizations of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Circassia have offered the authorities of Russia to announce amnesty by the Victory Day, including for the participants of events on October 13, 2005, in Nalchik.

The journalist who made a television clip for Boris Nemtsov, a candidate for Sochi Mayor, was attacked. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Olga Shorina, press secretary of the Movement named "Solidarity".

On April 23, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria will continue considering the case on events on October 13, 2005, in Nalchik. It is not excluded that the verdict will be passed at last, anticipated by the public for three and a half years already.

The Prosecutor's Office refused to provide any data to human rights activists about Yusup Zagirov, who was kidnapped in Dagestan on April 5 by unidentified power agents. On April 8 the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" was informed about this kidnapping by Yusup's brother Omar Zagirov.

A group of sappers of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) of Russia has arrived to Chechnya and started demining the rural territory in the vicinity of Grozny. They will have to examine about 50 hectares of arable land.

Since April 20, in the south of Chechnya, in the Itum-Kalin and Vedeno Districts, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was announced. Some local observers believe that these could be power agents' response actions to the Kremlin's decision to cancel the CTO regime that had survived in Chechnya for more than nine years.

The delegation of human rights activists from Azerbaijan was invited to Strasbourg to the regular session of the PACE to take place on April 27-30.

Today, in Baku, near the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, a picket was held by a group of activists of the youth movement "Dalga" (Wave). Their demand was to restore expelled 4th year student Pyarviz Azimov at the Lenkoran State University (LSU).

In Tbilisi, in the square in front of the parliament, supporters of the opposition have resumed their rally with participation of more than 10,000 protesters. Oppositionists plan to install "prison cells-cages" along the whole Rustaveli Avenue, and the local Union of Journalists "Objective" starts its project "Free Street Television" for broadcasting "alternative news" onto a big screen.

On April 22, the Moscow Garrison Military Court will continue debates on the case of Vladimir Bukreev accused of bribe-taking. Bukreev, who passed a verdict of guilty in 2003 to Colonel Yuri Budanov for murdering a Chechen girl, is complaining of violations in the course of the trial.

The majority of defendants who figure in the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005, in Nalchik refuse to admit their guilt. Some of them have admitted only the charge under Article 222 of the Russian Criminal Code - "Bearing and storage of arms".