News

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya finds that the militants' statement about involvement of Doku Umarov's people in blowing up the "Neva-Express" to be just bluffing. However, their federal colleagues refrain from comments.

The arrest and subsequent imprisonment of the young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, convicted for hooliganism and inflicting bodily injuries, has not resulted in any decrease of critical ideas in the blogosphere of Azerbaijan. This is proved by the analysis of blogs and interviews conducted by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent among civil society figures, experts and bloggers.

On December 1 in Krasnodar, opposite the building of the Forestry Department of the Krasnodar Territory, a picket was held in defence of the would-be Utrish Natural Reserve. Activists demanded, in particular, to stop construction of the so-called "anti-fire" road, where, in their opinion, relic forests are felled.

Today, the city of Anapa was to hold public hearings on the project "Forest Anti-Fire Road in the Anapa District Forestry", where the customer is the Department of Forestry of the Krasnodar Territory.

On December 1, the capital of Northern Ossetia starts a public reception office, intended to render free-of-charge legal aid and organized by law students.

The public organization of the Adyg people "Khasse" has made a statement on the fact of beating the leader of the "Circassian Congress" Ruslan Keshev in Kabardino-Balkaria. The statement notes that the aim of this attack was to disrupt preparation for the rally of Adyg public planned for December 5 in Nalchik.

Today, at the Tbilisi airport, a group of Russian experts was not allowed to cross the state border. Having spent half an hour in Georgia, they took a return flight and came back to Moscow via Yerevan.

Workers of mass media, authorities and the public took part in the section "Inter-Confessional and Interethnic Dialogue in Media Space" of the forum "Caucasus: Tradition and Modernization", held on November 30, 2009, in Nalchik.

As reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, on November 25 in Karabulak, two suspected militants were killed in a skirmish in their VAZ-2109 car. The casualties were Mustafa Tochiev and Khamzat Uzhakhov. Mustafa was in federal search. However, the eyewitnesses and Uzhakhov's relatives assert that Tochiev was just a passenger in Uzhakhov's taxi car.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has handed over to Russia its notes of protest related to the murder in Moscow on November 23 of Eduard Gurtskaya, a refugee from Abkhazia, and detention on November 29 of Ramaz Makasarashvili, a citizen of Georgia.

Zarema Sadulayeva, head of the humanitarian organization "Let's Save the Generation", who was kidnapped and murdered together with her husband Alik Dzhabrailov in Grozny earlier this August, was an occasional victim of the culprits: she died because of the husband. This was stated on Tuesday by Victor Ledenyov, head of the Investigatory Department for Chechnya of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) of Russia.

On Tuesday, the Novgorod Regional Court extended till March 3, 2010, the custody of Salanbek Dzakhkiev and Maksharip Khidriev, suspected figurants in the first explosion of the "Neva-Express" train committed in August 2007. This was announced by the spokesman of the united press service of the Novgorod regional judiciary.

One of the sections of the Forum "Caucasus. Traditions and Modernization", held today in Kabardino-Balkaria, was on the forms and problems of running business in the Caucasus. Many participants agreed that local authorities are hindering successful businesses in the Caucasus.

On November 29, the General Consulate of Azerbaijan in St Petersburg reported that there were no citizens of Azerbaijan among those who perished or suffered in the explosion of the "Neva-Express" fast train.

Ruslan Badalov, Chairman of the Russian Public Movement "Chechen Committee of National Salvation", was shocked by the statement of Maksharip Khidriev, a resident of Ingushetia, who pled guilty of preparing the first terror act against the "Neva-Express" train. In the opinion of human rights activist, there are eyewitnesses who evidence Khidriev's alibi.

Ruslan Keshev, leader of the public organization named "Circassian Congress", was violently beaten. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt from duly informed sources that at 5:30 p.m. several persons, led by a criminal authority, rushed into the office of the NGO and attacked him. Mr Keshev had his nose and arm broken and received other traumas.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" plans to restart its activities in the territory of the Chechen Republic in near future. However, the format can be somewhat different.

The quarantine, introduced in Grozny a week ago because of outbreak of acute respiratory diseases (ARDs), is cancelled. All the 40 schools of the city have resumed their work in full, as the spokesman from the department of education of the city of Grozny told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

So far, the power agencies of Chechnya have failed to find the killers of the two militiamen shot dead on November 27. The Republic's MIA sees the main reason of the murder in their service activities.

Today, the Moscow City Court upheld the arrest of Evgenia Khasis, 25, accused on the murder case of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, killed this January. The court session was held closed.