News

On April 3, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia stopped accepting applications from the parties willing to take part in the elections to institutions of local self-government to be held on May 30. In total, the CEC received applications from 36 parties.

The Amnesty International (AI) asserts that Georgia had purchased in Germany tools for torturing people. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia denies the accusations.

A special operation is on in the village of Stary Kostek, Khasavyurt District of Dagestan. Power agents are searching relatives of Jennet Abdurakhmanova, suspected of committing a suicidal terror act on March 29 at Park Kultury Moscow metro station.

Armen Arutyunyan, Ombudsman of Armenia, stood against the offered format of his participation in the forum of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) to be held in Yerevan on April 6-8. He sent a letter to the organizers asking to exclude him from the list of participants, as "he would not be given a chance to express his viewpoint alternative to the authorities' one."

The Territorial Fund of Mandatory Medical Insurance in the Chechen Republic has held a sociology poll and announced by its outcomes that the overwhelming majority (76 percent) of Chechen residents are satisfied with the medical aid available.

It is expected that the new Business Centre will promote Italian-Russian business cooperation, growth of trade and expansion of contacts between the two countries.

On April 2, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan listened to the report of Elmira Suleimanova - the national Ombudsperson - for 2009.

Vyacheslav Kovalenko, Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia to Armenia, has called not to put trust in rumours about deportation of Caucasus natives from Russia after the terror acts in Moscow metro stations Park Kultury and Lubyanka. President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev called not to offend people, when waging war on terror, by their nationalities or geographical origin.

On April 1 in the evening, in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, unidentified opened fire on the service car of the head Aksai settlement police station at the local ROVD (District Militia Division). And on the day of terror acts - on March 31 - a powerful bomb was neutralized in the Kizlyar District. In both cases there were no casualties and victims.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Russian Federation does not plan to send its recruits to Chechnya. This was stated by Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov, head of the department of the press service and information of the Ministry, in his comments on the rumours that newly-drafted soldiers would be sent to the units deployed in Chechnya.

Today in Baku, at about midday, a group of activists of the World Congress of Azerbaijanis (WCA) has held a non-authorized protest action in front of the embassy of Iran in Azerbaijan. As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the participants of the action came there to express their discontent with the actions of the authorities of Iran, who are damaging the ecology in the north of the country, where Azerbaijanis live. The point is in economic activities around Lake Urmia.

Doctor of Economy Mikhail Delyagin, chairman of the organizing committee of the Party "Homeland: Common Sense", also shared, at the press conference at the Independent Press Centre, his vision of the versions of the terror acts committed on March 29 in Moscow metro and on March 31 in Dagestan.

After the explosions in Moscow metro, mass media have repeatedly named the activities of terrorists as the actions of "Chechen separatists", which is wrong, as since 2004, after the terror act in Beslan, no "Chechen separatists" exist. This was stated by political scientist Sergey Markedonov, head of the division of interethnic relations of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, at the discussion held in Moscow on March 29: "Who has blown up Moscow and Kizlyar: Islamites, Separatists or Just Bandits?"

In Ingushetia, three brothers of oppositionist Magomed Khazbiev were announced into federal search as suspects of attacking Kaloy Akhilgov, press secretary of local President.

A source in law enforcement bodies of Ingushetia has reported that the unidentified persons are being searched, who shelled on April 1 in Nazran an Ural truck with frontier guards from grenade launchers.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has imposed a fine on Russia in the sum of 70,000 euros for disappearance on December 18, 2003, of Bashir Mutsolgov. This is stated in the Court's decision.

Azerbaijan lacks independent judiciary; and to put it in place, constitutional and institutional reforms are required. This was the keynote idea of most of the presentations at the roundtable on April 2 at the Baku Media Centre, where proposals were discussed on changes in the judicial sphere of Azerbaijan.

Six defendants figuring in the criminal case about the mass fight in the city of Kondopoga are sentenced to imprisonment for the terms from 3 years and 10 months to 22 years in colony.

On March 31, the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation presented charges of terrorism to 11 natives of Ingushetia-figurants in the "Neva-Express" train explosion in autumn of 2009. The defendants fail to plead guilty and refuse to evidence at interrogations.

At night on March 27, access was stopped to two Sochi websites, where critical publications were placed about the problems of Olympic construction in the Krasnodar Territory. Experts emphasize that such attacks are undertaken on a regular basis.