News

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has addressed members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) with an appeal to surrender in exchange for lenient administrative and criminal punishments.

Threats are arriving to mobile phones of the applicants for a rally in demand of a fair trial of Militia Major Alexei Dymovskiy. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee of Human Rights (NCHR) and Dymovskiy's official representative.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has recalled, after his mother's appeal, his suits against Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", Liudmila Alekseeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and a group of Moscow journalists. Alvi Karimov, Kadyrov's press secretary, denies that the mother asked to stop prosecution of human rights activists under Kadyrov's request.

On February 10, an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Dagestan will take place to vote on Magomedsalam Magomedov, nominated by Russian President Medvedev to the post of the republic's president. It is expected that Alexander Khloponin, Mr Medvedev's plenipotentiary for the NCFD (North-Caucasian Federal District), will present the nominee.

Andres Herkel (Estonia) and Joseph Grekh (Malta), co-Rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for Azerbaijan, are now in this country. Today, they have met Eldar Azizov, chief executive of the city of Gyandzha.

A criminal case is opened in Volgograd against militiamen from a PPS (patrol and post service) squadron, who are suspected of beating a detainee. This is reported by the regional department of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office).

In the opinion of Ibragim Yaganov, leader of the public organization "Khasse" of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), there is no threat to peace and accord; and what happens in the republic is a normal political process.

In Makhachkala, after the failure of the pump station on February 4, water is still absent in many houses, while communal services reload responsibility from one structure onto the other.

A criminal case has been initiated against an operative agent of Sochi UVD (Interior Department), who committed a road accident on February 6, as a result of which two elderly women were lost.

At the Supreme Court of Karelia, the state prosecution has demanded to sentence the main figurants in the case about mass disorders in the city of Kondopoga, natives of Chechnya and Dagestan, to imprisonment for the terms ranging from 6 to 22 years.

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation has satisfied the statement of the General Public Prosecutor and recognized the so-called "Imarat Kavkaz" (Emirate of the Caucasus) to be an international terrorist organization and banned its activities in Russia.

As reported by the website of the Regional Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office, the court decided to arrest 2 out of 19 detained Astrakhan employees of the STSI (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, known as "GIBDD"), while the arrest of other suspects is currently considered.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya refutes the fact of detention of Russian human rights activists. As reported by the press service of the Ministry, the Russian human rights defenders were not detained, but just brought to the Shali District OVD (Interior Division) for a check.

Today, President of Russia has brought his nominee - Magomedsalam Magomedov - in the National Assembly of Dagestan for approval to the post of the President of the republic.

The relatives of Maksharip Aushev, the Ingush oppositionist murdered in Kabardino-Balkaria, are dissatisfied with the course of inquiry and ask to transfer the case to the central machinery of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation.

Zubair Omarov, an inspector of the Investigatory Committee for especially important cases at the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, informed two figurants of the "execution list" today that they are regarded as victims in criminal case No. 96892, dealing with appeals to murders and grave crimes.

As reported by the Investigatory Department for Chechnya of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) of Russia, on February 4 the leader of a group of militants was assassinated in one of the settlements of the Vedeno District of Chechnya in the course of a special operation held in the south of the republic.

The court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan communities Centre-Nork-Marash has passed a verdict of "non-guilty" to human rights activist Arshaluis Akopyan, who is in custody for five months.

On Friday, February 5, St Petersburg was the venue of the first run and discussion of film "Aldy. With No Limitation Period", showing the events ten years ago, when on February 5, 2000, in a clean-up ("zachistka") in Novye Aldy village in Chechnya, conducted by the St Petersburg OMON (special militia), 56 peaceful residents were killed.

The Russian Federal Service on Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (known as "Rostekhnadzor") has considered the application of liberal-democrats of Northern Ossetia dealing with the adverse ecological situation due to emissions of the "Electrozink" factory.