News

Today, at the hearing on the case about the attack on power agencies of Kabardino-Balkaria, which resumed after a two-month break, the prosecution moved a petition that the case should be considered by three professional judges.

The hostel residents and human rights activists note that living conditions in the hostels of the city of Cherkessk are becoming worse and worse. Many of them have no heating, hot and cold water, the buildings fall into decay - no major repairs from the time of construction.

On February 16, unidentified persons threw a grenade into the yard of the household belonging to the Tsokiev family, located in Bazorkina Street in Malgobek (Ingushetia). The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about by the owner of the house Magomed Tsokiev; later the fact was confirmed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia.

Bukhari Baraev, plenipotentiary of Dokku Umarov, President of self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, has announced his return to Chechnya and abdication of the powers of separatists' special envoy. Ahmed Zakaev, head of the government of Ichkeria, has also states his comeback to the homeland and his intention "to promote long-standing peace in the region."

Today, John Prescott and George Colombier, co-rapporteurs for Armenia of the PACE's Monitoring Committee, have promulgated a statement calling the authorities of Armenia not to interfere with the rally of the opposition to be held at 3 p.m. at the Matenadaran building in the centre of Yerevan.

Today, the Eisk City Court of the Krasnodar Territory today has passed a verdict on the fire at the boarding house for old people in Kamyshevatskaya village in March 2007. Director of the house Galina Korvel was sentenced to 3.5 years of freedom deprivation in colony-settlement. Her deputy Yuri Bashko was sentenced to 4 years in colony. They were found guilty of breaching fire safety regulations.

Today, Kasumbek Amirbekov, head of the Investigatory Department for the Republic of Dagestan of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation, has stated that the investigation possesses no data about involvement of Gadzhimurad Aliev, son of the Republic's President and deputy head of the Department of the Federal Taxation Service (DFTS) for Dagestan, in kidnapping of Vladimir Radchenko.

On February 16, Larissa Zavedeeva, first deputy head of the Territorial Administration for enforcing powers of preparing the Olympiad, told at the sitting of the Regional Olympic Headquarters that the land area allotted for placing Olympic structures in Sochi will be increased by 45 percent that makes additional 6500 hectares.

An inspector of the Investigatory Department of the RF's Investigatory Committee for Kalmykia refused four times to initiate a criminal case on applications lodged by parents of the inmates beaten by the employees of the colony-settlement Tsagan-Usn, located in the Yashkul District. However, his rejection statements were cancelled by a higher body. In the end, the prosecutor's office has demanded to eliminate the reasons and conditions that promote violations and to punish those guilty.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Ingushetia has refused to consider the idea of delivering the criminal case on the death of Magomed Evloev, former owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", to some other region of Russia.

On February 14, the city of Anapa, Krasnodar Territory, hosted a picket against destruction of unique natural complexes of Utrish, organized by the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus.

Last Sunday, on February 15, in a skirmish that burst out in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, a man was assassinated.

The person, who was killed when militiamen opened fire at the car because the driver refused to obey them, was an employee of the security service of the administration of the city of Khasavyurt, and one of those wounded is an employee of law enforcement bodies.

At the process on Anna Politkovskaya's murder, a new version of the crime was presented: the order to kill the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" was given to Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, uncle of Makhmudov brothers, back in summer of 2006. However, since he was convicted, he passed the order over to Sergey Hadzhikurbanov.

Anatoly Pakhomov, Acting Mayor of the city of Sochi, has notified the residents of the Imereti Valley that to clear space for construction of Olympic objects they should finally move out of their houses by March 31.

At night of February 16, several thousands of inhabitants of the Sergokala District of Dagestan blocked the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the vicinity of Izberbash city. The picketers demanded to punish the employees of law enforcement bodies who heavily wounded, on the previous day, February 15, in the course of their counterterrorist operation, a local resident named Bashir Magomedov, 24, having initially blamed him to be a militant.

The remaining four persons killed on February 11 in Kabardino-Balkaria in the course of a special operation held in Gerpegezh village have been identified. Three casualties were identified earlier.

Today, the advocates defending the family of Magomed Evloev, former owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", who died on August 31, 2008, have lodged a complaint to the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) with a demand to initiate a criminal case against the militiamen, who had illegally detained Evloev at the airport of Magas, as one of the advocates Musa Pliev has explained.

Out of seven supposed militants killed on February 11 in the vicinities of Nalchik, three have been identified. They are residents of Khasanya village Takhir Osmanov and Beslan Shavaev, and Khizir Bichekuev, a resident of Kendelen village.

Today Sochi has hosted a presentation of the completed city general development plan. Prior to send the general plan for coordination to the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, the authors presented their work to the Public Town-Planning Board of Sochi.