News

On March 25, the parliamentary committee for legislation of Georgia held discussion of the bill "Freedom Charter", presented by Giya Tortladze, leader of the oppositional faction "Strong Georgia". As a matter of fact, the Charter unites two legal documents: "Law on Lustration" and the so-called "Patriotic Act". In Mr Tortladze's opinion, currently both documents are equally important for Georgia's safety.

In Baku today the issue of garbage disposal is quite pressing; however, the construction of a waste incinerate factory launched last year will not only fail to solve the ecology problems of the Azerbaijani capital but will only aggravate them, local ecologists assert.

Rashid Gadzhily, Director of the Azerbaijani Institute of Media Rights (IMR), became a laureate of the prestigious prize "Freedom of Expression" of the British human rights organization "Index on Censorship" in nomination "For Fight Against Repressions and Actions Towards Changing Political Climate". The awarding ceremony took place on March 25 in London.

Two Russian soldiers, who were considered as disappearances since the warfare in South Ossetia in August 2008, are found. This was stated today by General-Major Alexander Kirillin, head of the Department of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation for Commemoration of Perished Homeland Defenders.

The Russian authorities gave a permit to the Georgian Airline "Airzena-Georgian Airways" to make in early April a series of Tbilisi-Moscow charter flights dated to the approaching Easter.

Criminal inspectors of the MIA have released 30 Vietnamese from an illegal factory situated in Egorievsk near Moscow; they came to Russia for earnings and found themselves in slavery of their factory boss - a native of Armenia.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev called inefficient use of budgetary funds as one of the reasons of unsuccessful performance of the Russian national team at the Olympiad in Vancouver and did not exclude that the results of the check conducted to this end by the Audit Chamber would be sent to the Prosecutor's Office.

According to General Nikolai Rogozhkin, Commander-in-Chief of Internal Troops of the Russian MIA, up to 500 militants, mainly young men aged 25-28, can currently operate in the territory of Northern Caucasus.

The Caucasus is in the "wait condition", since nobody knows precisely there, what policy will be pursued by the country and what the "card deal" will be after Olympiad-2014. This was stated by Aneta Gadieva, a member of the Association of victims of terror acts named "Mothers of Beslan".

After interference of the commission of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of the Russian Federation, the criminal case about beating journalists in Astrakhan during the elections on October 11, 2009 by securities of the regional duma deputy was returned to additional check.

Today in Vladikavkaz, the public organization of veterans of power agencies of North Ossetia "Law Is Above Power" will organize a rally in protest against arbitrariness of "high Ossetian corrupt officials."

On March 24, Dick Marti, Rapporteur of the PACE on Human Rights in Northern Caucasus, met activists of public organizations of Ingushetia, President Yunus-Bek Evkurov and heads of power agencies. In his voyage, Mr Marti was accompanied by Gunter Schirmer, secretary of the delegation and secretary on legal issues and human rights of the PACE, Ilyas Umakhanov, member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valery Levitskiy, deputy head of the office of international cooperation of the State Duma, and Victor Solodov, officer of the MIA of the Russian Federation.

A board of jurymen of the Moscow City Court has recognized Arthur Ryno and Pavel Skachevskiy, heads of a grouping of nationalists, guilty of a murder attempt.

Militia Major Alexei Dymovskiy, who earlier poured criticism on high-ranking MIA officers, is not going to apologize to militia bosses of Novorossisk and is going to place new exposing video materials in the Internet.

The Arbitration Court of North Ossetia has ruled that the "Electrozink" metallurgy factory in Vladikavkaz shall improve its sanitary-protective zone. Until then, according to the verdict of Judge Marina Kopteva, the factory is suspended.

Murders of human right activists Natalia Estemirova and Zarema Sadulayeva were committed with the aim to create the opinion in the society that Chechnya is far from order; and people are still kidnapped and murdered here. This was stated today in Gudermes by President Ramzan Kadyrov in the course of his meeting with Dick Marti, Rapporteur of the PACE.

Under the latest data, Anzor Astemirov, leader of the armed underground of Kabardino-Balkaria, who was liquidated on March 24, was accompanied by an accomplice who was wounded but managed to abscond from power agents.

The NATO considers the TV report about the alleged Russia's aggression against Georgia put on air by the Georgian TV Company "Imedi" as "unwise" and "useless". This was stated on March 24 by James Appathurai, official spokesman of the Alliance. In its turn, the US reconnaissance believes that provocations like this "special report" can kindle a real conflict in the Caucasus.

None of the schools in the Leningor District of South Ossetia (Georgia calls it the Akhalgori District) was ruined; while the Georgian party is again trying to destabilize the situation in the region. This was stated by Alexander Baratashvili, deputy head of the Leningor District, in his comments on the allegations moved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia that Russian militaries had destroyed school No. 3 with the aim to build an apartment house for militaries instead.

The Amnesty International (AI) has addressed the authorities of Azerbaijan in the context of threats received by the family of convicted journalist, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Real Azerbaijan" Einullah Fatullaev.