News

As stated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia, the deployment by the Russian Federation of frontier motor boats in Abkhazian waters is qualified as piracy and pursues the aim "of strengthening of the occupational military contingent."

In Armenia, on December 5, at the sitting of the Central Electoral Committee (CEC), a decision was made to register the inmate Nikol Pashinyan, an activist of the opposition and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Armenian Time", accused of organizing mass disorders on March 1, 2008, as a candidate for deputy.

Now, in the Rostov Region, children in the age under 16 have no right to appear without adults at night in public places. The respective law was passed on December 3 by the regional parliament.

Sasun Mikaelyan, an activist of the opposition, who was deprived of his deputy's mandate after the charges moved against him of organizing mass disorders on March 1, 2008, was urgently transferred from prison "Yerevan-Centre" to the Republic's Hospital of Armenia because of sharp deterioration of his health condition.

Georgian journalists will now be able to receive theoretical and practical knowledge on how to properly cover conflicts and how to behave in extreme situations. These subjects will be taught at a special school.

Within the next few days, the Inquiry Division of the Moscow GUVD (Chief Interior Department) will interrogate President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov on the criminal case initiated under his claim of slander against Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

The National Commission of Georgia for Communications has made a decision to fine a number of Russian TV Companies for broadcasting in the territory of Abkhazia without Georgia's permit. This is the topic of the Commission's statement of December 4.

Today at about 11 o'clock in the morning, at the entrance to the office of the Kabardian public organization "Khasse", a group of at least ten unidentified persons attacked the leader of this organization Ibragim Yaganov and severely beat him. Yaganov was hospitalized in grave condition and stays there now.

In case of opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, the railway Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku will lose its sense; therefore, as soon as talks were initiated on normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the construction of this road was suspended. This was stated on December 4 by Shirak Torosyan, chairman of the "Dzhavakhk" community and Armenian MP.

On December 4, in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, experts and leaders of public organizations expressed their opinions on the radical statements and military threats announced by the authorities of Azerbaijan.

The Adzharian independent TV Channel "TV-25", the broadcasting of which is under threat of stopping for the latest three years, is now defended by all the journalists of Georgia, oppositional political forces and foreign partners. The authorities want to stop the channel for its debts and now negotiate with the owners on how to eliminate the problem.

As reported by Magomed Dibirov, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Dagestan, the consideration by the Derbent City Court of the case about the election of the Mayor, held on October 11, which ended in nullifying all the protocols, passed with violations of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure.

Tofik Guseinov, father of Mushvig Guseinov, convicted and imprisoned journalist of the newspaper "Bizim Yol" (Our Way), has called the public of the country and international organizations to demand releasing of his son, who is suffering from tuberculosis.

In Batumi, a trial goes on of the case about a scuffle between David Dzhaparidze and members of the family of Eka Beseliya, leader of the "Movement for United Georgia". The prosecutor's office demands from 6 to 12 years of imprisonment for her brother Sergo Beseliya for participation in a scuffle with application of cold steel arms - knuckles, while her son - Rati Milorava - is under threat of conditional punishment, as at the moment of the scuffle he was 15.

Eyub Kerimov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Femida-007", categorically rejects the charges, presented against him by Ramil Usubov, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Azerbaijan, who insists that the journalist had slandered him by accusing of committing especially grave crimes.

The tomb of Turpal-Ali Dzhamalkhanov, whom power agents believe to be Amir of the militants of the village of Tsa-Vedeno, Vedeno District, was found in the flat Shelkovskoy District. The remains were exhumed and sent to examination. However, in the opinion of the head of a local human rights organization, the exhumation of the remains of the participant of armed formations, who died from his wounds, for conducting examination is a real mockery, designed by power agents with the aim to cause greatest sufferings to his relatives.

On December 1-2, in Anapa and Novorossisk, public hearings were held on the ecological and economic justification of the Utrish Natural Reserve. The ecologists complain that many residents of the Territory and activists of public organizations were not admitted to the debates.

The Georgian journalist Levan Gudadze, who addressed in early September for shelter in Russia, has addressed the migration service in the territory of Northern Ossetia with a request to stop the consideration of his application for political asylum.

On December 3, at the court session dealing with the attack on Nalchik in October 2005, the state of health of defendant Rasul Kudaev got sharply worsened. According to eyewitnesses he had bloody vomit. The session was interrupted for more than two hours. Doctors were invited to Kudaev and diagnosed: stomach ulcer under question.

The international human rights organization "Reporters Without Borders" has awarded its Press Freedom Prize for the contribution into defence of the freedom of press to the "Dosh" (Word) magazine from Chechnya.