News

The Russian party is not interested in any information about the last year's was in South Ossetia. This was stated by General-Lieutenant Anatoly Barankevich, ex-secretary of the Security Council of South Ossetia, at the roundtable "South Ossetia. War. Peace. Uncertainty" dated to the 20th anniversary of the start of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

Russian media and Chechen society believe that President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov will be appointed to the news post of high official in charge of the situation in the whole Northern Caucasus.

In the context of the complaint submitted by the candidate for the President of Abkhazia Raul Khadzhimba, Batal Tabagua, Chairman of Central Electoral Commission (CEC), made an official statement, running that there are no grounds to state that administrative resource are used during the elections.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory is inspecting the pharmaceutical entities-retailers of medical products for availability of the necessary drugs and facts of unjustified excessively high prices on medicines.

In Armenia, psychological pressure is the most widespread form of violence applied to women; sexual, physical and economic forms of violence are also widespread. This was stated on November 25 by Gene Sargizova, head of the UN programme "Against Gender Violence in South Caucasus".

The conflict around frequent hazardous emissions by the "Electrozink" factory would not abate in the capital of North Ossetia. Despite assurances of the enterprise managers that emissions into the atmosphere took place only on October 5 and 28, people go on complaining of periodical unpleasant smell in the air.

As reported today by Stanislav Kochiev, chairman of the parliament of South Ossetia, who is now in Moscow, South Ossetia offers Georgia to make a simultaneous exchange of all detained Georgians and Ossetians without any preconditions.

Tatiana Lokshina, deputy director of the Moscow office of the Human Rights Watch, was summoned as a witness in the criminal case, initiated against Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", on the charge of slandering President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. A number of other human rights activists also received summons.

At the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Russia has lost another case to relatives of five residents of Chechnya kidnapped in 2003. Under the decision of the Court, the victims should get in total 215,000 euros of compensation.

Ms Chechenova, M. S., Magistrate Judge of Judicial District No. 8 of the city of Nalchik, having considered the materials of the case related to the six persons, detained yesterday for their picket and accused of an administrative offence, has ruled to stop the case because of absence of any offence attributes in their actions.

Egyptian human rights activists beat an alarm. Under their information, Ibragim Mankiev, 32, a citizen of the Russian Federation, who is kept by the State Security Body of the Arab Republic of Egypt, is exposed to torture. This was reported by the bureau of the Amnesty International (AI) in Alexandria.

The Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan has launched a check of observance of the pricing legislation in the pharmaceutical market of the republic. Numerous cases when drugs were sold too expensive have been revealed.

The Prosecutor's Office of Karachai-Circassia had revealed a number of violations in the work of the Republic's Social and Rehabilitation Children's Centre named "Nadezhda" (Hope). Prosecutors believe that certain provisions of the Centre's charter contradict the legislation.

Russia should strain harder towards stability in Northern Caucasus. This was stated by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner of the Council of Europe on Human Rights, in his report published on November 24 on the outcomes of his visit to Chechnya and Ingushetia in September 2009.

The Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands from Georgian authorities to stop unprovoked, according to the MFA's statement, detentions of citizens of the Russian Federation.

The health condition of Tsotne, son of the first president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who is in pre-trial custody under the charge of a deliberate murder attempt, where he went on hunger strike, continues to aggravate.

David Bakradze, head of the Georgian parliament, has accused, in his comments on the murder in the evening on November 23 in Moscow of Eduard Gurtskaya, 19, a native of Abkhazia, Russia of ethnically-motivated persecution of people.

The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to cancel the verdict passed to Ingush oppositionists, including Maksharip Aushev, assassinated a month ago, on the case about organization of mass disorders in Ingushetia.

The persons detained today at an attempt to hold a picket in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria were illegally kept at the OVD (Interior Unit) No. 1 of Nalchik, where a protocol on administrative offence was drawn up; then, they were transported to the court. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Elena Bairamkulova, an advocate and a colleague of Magomed Abubakarov, who is defending the interests of those accused under the case about the 2005 events in Nalchik.

Russia is preparing an answer to the interstate complaint submitted by Georgia on the events in South Ossetia and received by Russia from the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) on February 11, 2009. This was stated today by Andrei Nesterenko, official spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Russian Federation.