News

On December 16, after the public hearings held in four Sochi districts on the draft "Rules of Land Use and Development of Sochi" (RLUD), a meeting was organized of the members of the public entity named "Town-Planning Board of Sochi", headed by architect Olga Kozinskaya, with the counterpart - City Council at Sochi Mayor, headed by architect Ovanes Zadikyan.

On December 16, Makhachkala hosted a sitting of the Expert's Board under the Ombudsperson of Dagestan with participation of the Ombudsperson's office, prosecutors, power bodies and public organizations. The agenda included the problems faced by children-orphans, who breaks their rights and how to help this category of population.

In Chechnya, activists of some local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local residents believe that the restart of the activities of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" will promote improvement of the situation with human rights in the republic. So far, there is no official reaction of the authorities to this end.

Today, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has announced its ruling to extend till March 26, 2010, the custody term of all the defendants accused of attacking power agencies structures of the KBR in Nalchik in October 2005.

Yesterday, on December 15, the annual Remembrance Day of the journalists who perished at performance of their professional duties was marked in Moscow. The Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR) instituted this date in memory of the media workers who have taken their violent death during the last 20 years. Today, he list has more than 300 surnames.

Russian authorities must do everything possible to ensure safety of human rights activists in Chechnya. This was stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Rachel Denber, deputy director of the branch of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) for Europe and Central Asia.

The Association has sent a letter to the editorial board of the "Rustavi-2" in protest against the report that appeared in the "Courier" TV Programme.

Shamil Gasanov, Federal Judge of the Sovietskiy District, is protracting not to consider the statement of claim on protecting honour, dignity and business reputation of the weekly edition "Novoe Delo" and its journalist Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, where Garun Kurbanov, Minister on National Policy, Information and Foreign Relations of Dagestan, is indicated as respondent. This was stated on December 15 by Magomed Gasanov, who is a proxy of the LLC "Novoe Delo" - owner of the weekly having the same name.

The Council of the Parliament of Chechnya has made a decision to establish the International Peace Prize named after the first President of the republic Ahmat-Hadji Kadyrov. The decision was made because the MPs believe that the Nobel Committee discredited itself by award the Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama.

The last thing that Natalia Estemirova did was to state that Chechnya again has public executions. This was stated by Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the Board of the HRC "Memorial", at the ceremony in Moscow of awarding the medal of Russian Ombudsman "Hurry Making Good", where Natalia Estemirova was awarded posthumously. In Mr Cherkasov's opinion, probably, she was assassinated because of that.

On the eve of the Memory Day of journalists who perished at execution of their professional duties, President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made a special statement naming journalists "warriors of the pen and worthy people."

Press releases were disseminated among local media in this city on behalf of the regional branch of the All-Russian NGO named "Young Europe". The letters recommended "informing children in educational establishments about persons of non-traditional sexual orientation."

The European Parliament, by awarding the Andrei Sakharov Prize to the members of the HRC "Memorial" and the Moscow Helsinki Group, is expressing gratitude to all Russian human rights defenders. This is said in the statement of the Chairman of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek.

Today, Khadizhat Shikhalieva, chair of the "Muslimat" Society, and a group of residents of Novy Kyakhulai village, Leninsliy District of the city of Makhachkala, and of Sergokala settlement, Sergokalin District, have addressed President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev with a request to protect children, according to the Law "On Personal and Public Morals in the Republic of Dagestan", against the fatal influence of morals degradation as covered by media.

The refugees from Chechnya and Georgia, who tried to get to Germany from the territory of Poland, were placed for the night in the settlement of the frontier guards; and today they will be returned to the refugee centres, where their further stay in the territory of Poland will be decided on the individual basis. This was reported by Polish journalist Augustina, who cooperates with the newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza".

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has finished the service check in relation to Militia Major from Novorossisk Alexei Dymovskiy and has delivered its results to the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation. Mr Dymovskiy himself believes that initiation of a criminal case against him is a clinched matter.

Starting today, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" resumes the full scope of its work in Chechnya. It was suspended after the murder of the human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, as Oleg Orlov, the head of the Centre said at a press conference in the European Parliament.

The rumours that defendants in the case of 2007 "Neva-Express" train explosion refused to evidence have nothing to do with reality: they just demand to observe the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), according to which the prosecution party should be listened to completely prior to defendants' evidences. This was stated by Murat Yunusov, who is defending their interests.

The employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Chechnya Natalia Estemirova "had one motivation - a human's right to human rights, and, first of all, to the right to life and human dignity", said Vladimir Pozner, a renown TV journalist.

Georgia sees growth in swine flu patients. 65 children are kept in the central children's clinic of Tbilisi (Murman Iashvili hospital) with symptoms of A/H1N1virus. Nino Kikodze, head of urgent aid ward, said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that currently the diagnosis is confirmed in some 30-35 patients. The oppositional Labour Party of Georgia demands to urgently announce the epidemic in the country.