News

On April 21, the Moskovskiy District Federal Court of St-Petersburg considered two claims for compensation of moral damage lodged by relatives of the victims at Tu-154 aircraft crash, flight "Anapa - St-Petersburg", near Donetsk in August 2006. Both claims were partially satisfied.

The parliamentary faction named "Heritage" has launched collecting signatures in the National Assembly of Armenia under petition to the General Public Prosecutor with a demand to change the freedom restriction measure of the Deputies arrested during the events on March 1.

On April 22, 2008, a complaint was lodged to the Public Prosecutor of the city of Kaspisk filed by Rajab Rajabov, Deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan and Director General of the Closed Joint-Stock Company "Arsi-2", with a demand to cancel the decision made by Arsen Magaramov, inspector of the Caspian investigatory department at the Russian Prosecutor's Office for Dagestan, who refused to initiate a criminal case.

Notary Fail Sadretdinov, who had been accused of complicity in murder of Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of Russian Forbes, has been acquitted today by the Moscow City Court.

For two days already the GALA TV Company is back on air, and its transmitter is back on the old television tower that belongs to the mayoralty of the city of Gyumri, despite the decisions of the courts of the first instance of Gyumri and of the Appeal Court.

Residents of the Nasyr-Kort municipal district of the city of Nazran, Ingushetia, refuse to confirm the information about bombardment of the block-post by unknown persons. They assert that on April 21 the fire was from one side and was opened by power agents.

In Dinskaya village of the Krasnodar territory militiamen keep in custody the participants of the picket against tortures, Tatiana Rudakova, Chair of the NGO named "Mothers in Defence of Rights of Detainees, Persons on Trial and Convicts", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The "Kommersant" newspaper reports that over 300 privates and officers of the "Vostok" special battalion of the Ministry of Defence, commanded by Sulim Yamadaev, who is in conflict with President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, decided to pass over for service in Chechen militia units.

The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has initiated three criminal cases in connection with the attack on the Ombudsman's representative and two armed collisions in the Vedeno District (south of Chechnya).

The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Venetian Commission of the Council of Europe have welcomed the decision of National Assembly of Armenia to make changes in the Law "On Rallies, Marches and Demonstrations".

On April 16, 2008, Khatu Zhigunov, President of the Bar of Kabardino-Balkaria, initiated disciplinary proceedings on termination of the lawyer's status of Larissa Dorogova.

The NGO "Kartlosi" Friendship Bridge is concerned that the authorities of South Ossetia are holding for five days in Tskhinvali in custody a girl of 20 named Yana Bestaeva-Kandelaki.

The European Union expresses serious concern because of Russia's intention to launch legal relations with non-recognized Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and calls Moscow not to undertake any steps in this direction. This is the topic of the statement of Slovenia, which is currently presiding in the EU.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya is revolted with the statements about the Chechen militia, made yesterday, on April 18, by Sulim Yamadaev, commander of the "Vostok" (East) battalion.

On April 17 the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a report on the situation in democratic institutes of Armenia.

Northern Caucasus remains one of the poorest Russian regions from the viewpoint of respect of human rights. This is the conclusion of the report entitled "Situation in Northern Caucasus. Autumn 2007 - Spring 2008" of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", prepared for the regular round of EU-Russia consultations on human rights that took place on April 16 in Ljubljana.

The region named Kvemo-Kartli, inhabited by most of the Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, is in a very grave situation - both economically and morally. For this reason many residents are forced to leave Georgia.

Today, the jury has acquitted Victor Vysokikh, deputy head of the Public Security Militia of Karelia, accused of professional negligence in relation to mass disorders in Kondopoga in 2006.

Rovshan Novruzoglu, an Azerbaijani political scientist and Director of the Centre for Fighting Corruption and International Terrorism, has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment with serving the punishment in a general custody colony.

Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, has instructed the government to start consultations on admission of Georgian goods to the Russian market and on cancelling visa restrictions for citizens of Georgia.