News

Several speakers to the rally in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, held on February 1 in Chistye Prudy in Moscow, called Russians to mass protests against the ruling regime and revelry of neo-Nazis. Despite the frost, four hundred persons came to take part.

The investigation of the murder case of Farid Babaev, leader of the Dagestan "Yabloko" Party, lacked due care. The analysis of the materials of the case and the whole litigation process give rise to the idea that either inspectors themselves set up a certain "barrier" beyond which the inquiry should not move, or such barrier had been imposed by someone. This is the topic of today's statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

On February 1, law enforcers detained a resident of the Staropromyslovskiy District of the capital of Chechnya, who, according to the investigation, in 2007 supplied foodstuffs to members of illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The Moscow Regional Military Court has ruled to hold its next session on Anna Politkovskaya's murder case on February 3.

Three miners-pensioners, who take part in the hunger strike held in the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, have been hospitalized because of health deterioration.

The Command of the 58th Army asserts that Junior Sergeant Alexander Glukhov who found himself in the territory of Georgia could have been recruited by Georgian special services.

The law enforcement bodies of Georgia assert that today observers from the European Union and a group of foreign journalists were shelled from the territory of Abkhazia near the village of Shamgona, Zugdidi District. Abkhazia declares that it has nothing to do with the incident.

Today in Dagestan, a clock-operated explosive was detected under the main Mozdok-Kazimagomed gas pipeline. The bomb was neutralized.

Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for preparing Olympiad-2014, has expressed his confidence that Russia will manage to get ready timely for holding the Winter Olympic Games; however, he has noted that today Sochi is not ready to be an Olympic capital.

In the capital of Azerbaijan, bureaucrats want to move about 50 families who live in the private houses allegedly subjects to demolition into the new ones built in the territory of destroyed Nariman cemetery.

Today, the Congress of Ingush Nation was opened. Its agenda has three points: public and political situation in the Republic and ways to improve it; adoption of the Law on Local Self-Government; and counteraction to corruption.

Today, Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, widow of the first president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, has announced a dry hunger strike in the reception room of the Republic's Hospitals in Tbilisi.

The Volgograd Region has published a collection of documents evidencing the damage caused by the actions of fascist troops during the Volga Battle in 1942-1943.

In 2010, for the first time in the last 20 years, South Ossetia will hold a national census. The decision was passed at the sitting of the presidium of the government of South Ossetia, where the respective bill was presented.

Azerbaijan will file an application for holding Olympic Games of 2020 in Baku. This statement was made by Azad Ragimov, Minister for Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan.

The Priyutnenskiy District of Kalmykia, 15 kilometres off the capital Elista, is finalizing the installation of wind power generators of the first wind power plant in the South of Russia. By 2010, they plan to commission the Republic's wind power yard consisting of 126 wind-driven generators for the aggregate power capacity of 150 megawatts.

Yesterday, on January 29, three residents of Chechnya, suspected of complicity with the armed underground groups, were detained in the Urus-Martan District by power agents. They assert that confiscated a grenade from one of the detainees.

On January 29, in the Kremlin, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev met Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", and Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR and a co-owner of the newspaper.

In Rostov-on-Don, about 50 former soldiers, the so-called "Afghans", have gathered today in the morning for holding a picket with a demand to allot land plots to them for building of dwelling houses.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that already before the start of today's session on the "Case of Seven" at least five hundred participants of the protest action have rallied near the building of the General Jurisdiction Court of the Shengavit community.