News

Investigation of the cases of missing citizens of South Ossetia has been commissioned to two international experts - Bruce Richard Pegg (Australia) and Nicolas Cebir (France). This was reported to journalists in Tskhinvali by Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights, who added that he will deal with the cases of prisoners.

A mourning ceremony dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait took place today in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The united candidate from the opposition to the post of Tbilisi Mayor will be named, most probably, in early March, while now the nomination mechanism is defined. It was stated to journalists by Levan Gachechiladze, one of the leaders of Georgian opposition and the chairman of the public organization "Defend Georgia".

Today, unidentified persons attacked human rights activist Vadim Karastelyov, who represents the interests of former Major Alexei Dymovskiy. This was reported by Nikolai Ukraintsev, Vadim's advocate.

On February 26, Sochi gave grand welcome to bronze medallist of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver Alexei Voevoda. The athlete has declared that after this victory he decided to "round up" with bobsleigh.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has sentenced Ahmed Abzhavatov, a resident of Makhachkala, to the maximal punishment - 25 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony - for being a member of IAFs (illegal armed formations) and murdering two militiamen.

President of Karachai-Circassia Boris Ebzeev has decided to liquidate the governmental machinery. His press service reports that the respective amendments to the Republic's Law "On Government of the Karachai-Circassian Republic (KCR)" were discussed at the regular sitting of the government.

Observers and residents of the city-resort of Sochi complain about facts of using administrative resources during early voting for City Assembly Deputies that started on February 26. However, the local electoral commission assures that everything was lawful.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has explained the conditions of passing through the only check point in the Georgian-Russian border named "Kazbegi-Verkhni Lars", which will be reopened on March 1.

As reported by a source from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, at night of February 27, unidentified persons shelled a shop in Nazran from their sub-machine guns killing one person and wounding another one.

After President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced construction of a mountain-ski resort in the Argun Gorge, the republic's authorities began talking about the tourist attractiveness of the region; however, tourist experts and businessmen are rather sceptical to this idea, thinking that tourists would not come to Chechnya in near future.

The re-erected "Memorial of Glory", which was blown up in Kutaisi, Georgia, will be located behind the building of the museum of the Great Patriotic War on the Poklonnaya Mount.

On February 26, the Garadag District Court of Baku upheld the presentation of the District Prosecutor's Office and extended the custody term of Einullah Fatullaev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Real Azerbaijan", who is kept in the Baku Investigatory Isolation Facility (known as "SIZO"), by two more months.

Today, the Moscow City Court started considering the claim on rehabilitation of Ruslan Musaev, who was earlier acquitted on the attempt case on President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov in May 2007. After a ten-minute session, the consideration of the case on the merits was reappointed on March 10. The reason for delay was in the statement made by the representative of the Ministry of Finance about the need on their part to calculate damage caused to Musaev by unjustified prosecution and formulate their position in the court.

Celebrations in honour of Prophet Mohammed's birthday continue in the Chechen Republic. The main celebratory actions started on February 25 at 6:00 p.m. and lasted all the night long.

The health condition of Tsotne - the son of the first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia - is estimated as stable. A special briefing to this topic was held today at the Ministry for Enforcement of Punishments, Probation and Legal Aid. According to David Asatiani, head of the medical department of the Ministry, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia is under special control of the doctors of his department.

The large Islamic complex to be erected in the city of Magas, where the main object will be the Cathedral Mosque capable to house 8000 believers, will also comprise the Islamic University for 300 students, a students' hostel, a building of the Republic's Spiritual Department of Moslems, a hotel and a "Khalyal" shopping centre. This was reported by President Yunus-Bek Evkurov.

Today in the morning in Ingushetia, near Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, a bomb was triggered in a road shoulder, when armoured "Ural" truck with MIA agents inside was passing by. Two militiamen were wounded and hospitalized.

Today, Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner of the Council of Europe, came to Georgia for his three-day visit. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Mr Hammarberg's press service that today he would have meetings with activists of NGOs and human rights organizations, then - with government officials, prior to his visit to South Ossetia.

People in Chechnya are sceptical to the news that the murderer of the well-known human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, kidnapped and assassinated on July 15, 2009, is established. Her colleagues believe that inspectors know already for a long time the executors and organizers of this crime; however, they doubt that the names will ever be disclosed.