News

Kakha Kukava, one of the leaders of the United Opposition, has informed that the Central Electoral Commission of Georgia refused to present to the Opposition complete video records of the voting process at the early presidential election in Georgia and plebiscite held on January 5.

The Prosecutor's Office of the city of Nalchik has sent replies to the widows of the militants who were killed in the attack on October 13, 2005, in which the actions of militiamen are treated as illegal.

The authorities and residents of Chechnya hope that the militaries will be brought to responsibility for shelling the village of Gekhi, Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, from long-range guns.

The verdict of the Maikop City Court in relation to student Victor Milkov, who placed on the Internet a video clip showing a murder scene of natives from Caucasus and Central Asia, was cancelled by the Criminal Panel of the Supreme Court of Adygea for "lenient penalty."

Five out of eight defendants in the case related to explosion in Moscow's Cherkizovo marketplace on August 21, 2006, where 11 persons were lost, have partially pled guilty.

Irakliy Okruashvili, former Minister of Defence of Georgia, has been released from custody under his advocates' guarantee.

The authorities of the Polish city of Olsztyn have agreed to provide social habitation to the Dzhabrailov family from Chechnya, which has lost their three daughters in the mountains, when attempting to illegally cross the Ukrainian-Polish border.

In his final annual message to the Congress, US President George Bush has noted the success of the election in Georgia and treated it among "the tremendous events in the history of freedom."

The oppositional candidates for the President of Georgia, who have lost the election on January 5, have put forward their 17 claims to the authorities in the form of an ultimatum, and appointed the deadline on February 15, threatening with mass protest actions.

The authorities of Azerbaijan will have to release all political prisoners and journalists. Should the demand of the PACE be ignored, the Council of Europe will announce the name of a new Special Rapporteur on the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

On January 26, some 50 persons were brought to the city's OVD on suspicion of participation in the mass disorders, which burst out in the centre of Nazran; of them, 19 were brought to administrative responsibility in the form of fines.

On January 30, the French Court will start considering the case of Irakliy Okruashvili, former Minister of Defence of Georgia, who is kept in a Paris prison.

In Azerbaijan, Sakit Zakhidov, journalist-satirist of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, who was convicted and now in prison, continues his protest hunger strike started on January 26.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has started a trial on the case about the murder of Dagir Kachaev, imam in one of Makhachkala mosques, who was shot dead on February 22, 2007.

Mikhail Tarantsov, Ombudsman for the Volgograd Region, has expressed, while assessing the operation of the Regional GUVD in 2007, his concern with the fact that the number of justified claims of Volgograd residents to the activities of law enforcement bodies does not go down.

The roundtable "Environmental Problems in Construction of Olympic Sites in Sochi - Ways of Settlement" held on January 23 in the most expensive Krasnaya Polyana (Red Glade) "Peak Hotel" had a number of acute issues.

The Board of Elders of the Balkar People has filed a cassation complaint to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which challenges the lawfulness of the decision to liquidate the BEBP passed by the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria on January 14.

The Human Rights Watch believes the detention of journalists and human rights activists during the rally in Nazran (Ingushetia) on January 26 to be an encroachment on independent coverage of events.

A decision was made in Nazran (Ingushetia) at an extraordinary sitting of the Organizing Committee of the nationwide rally, where Maksharip Aushev, Magomed Evloev and other opposition leaders were present, to hold another rally on February 23.

According to the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic Ingushetia, currently, the law enforcement bodies of the Republic keep detained over 20 persons suspected of involvement in mass disorders in Nazran.