News

The Basmanny Court of Moscow has sanctioned arrest of Nikita Tikhonov and Evgeniya Khasis, accused of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. The term of investigation on the case was prolonged till January 18.

Now, Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, looks like a huge construction site. However, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent could not get any details about the works underway at the Committee for Restoration of South Ossetia. Residents of city appeared to be friendlier and said that they have to restore their houses with their own hands, but the compensation of 50,000 roubles is too small.

Today in Azerbaijan, the Court for Grave Crimes has finished the process on the criminal case of the illegal armed formation (IAF) named "Forest Brothers", the members of which had been accused of terrorism and various crimes.

The Georgian MIA demands to set free four Georgian teenagers, who had been detained on November 4 by power agents of South Ossetia and declared to be terrorists, without any preconditions.

Alik Bzhaniya, a former officer of the Georgian armed forces was granted the refugee status in Russia. This was reported by Konstantin Poltoranin, head of the PR department of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS).

As reported by the regional branch of Russian "Rospotebnadzor" (Federal Agency for Consumer Supervision), 30 cases of the disease have been registered in this republic.

The Belarusian parliament has set up a working group in the House of Representatives for preparing to consideration of the appeal of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on recognition of the independence of these two breakaway republics; in the near future the issue will be addressed.

The main directions in the work of the Police of Armenia are fighting crime, support of public order, protection of citizens' rights, and - the most important - recovery of the police's credibility among people. This was stated by Alik Sarkisyan, head of the Police of Armenia, at his meeting with students and teachers of the Yerevan State University.

On November 4, employees of the department of constitutional safety of Georgia arrested high-ranking officials of the Ministry for Protection of Environment and Natural Resources of Georgia.

Today at about midday, participants of the protest action against operation of the "Electrozink" factory, located in the capital of North Ossetia, have gathered near the building of the city Mayoralty. As the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports, some 200-250 persons take part in the action.

The members of the independent public commission, set up this July to investigate the circumstances of the murder of human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, have addressed Russian leaders and heads of international human rights organizations, saying in their statement, in particular, about attempts to use her death for speculations. The statement was dated to the hundred days that expired after her assassination.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia has denied the information disseminated today that the killers of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova were detained.

Today in Makhachkala, having defeated "Metallurg" from Lipetsk 3:0, the football team "Anzhi" from Dagestan won the first place in Russian championship in Division One and next season will be relegated to Premier League. The fans who came to the central square of Makhachkala to celebrate the victory were dispersed by the militia.

Grigol Vashadze, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, wrote an application addressed to the President of Russia about his refusal from Russian citizenship and sent his Russian passport to Moscow.

A woman, citizen of this country, was hospitalized with diagnosis of infection with virus A/H1N1. On November 3, she returned to Baku from the Ivan-Frankovsk District of Ukraine, where the swine flu epidemic is at full swing.

On October 31, power agents captured a woman and a young man and took them away in an unknown direction. By now, nothing is known about their fate.

Citizens of Georgia N. B. Nikoleishvili and D. S. Khubaniya, who are kept in the special detention facility for serving minor punishments in the city of Archangelsk, awaiting their deportation outside Russia, have gone on hunger strike with a demand to address the problem on their deportation and create proper conditions for those who wait their deportation for long.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation has refused to support the initiative of Semyon Bagdasarov, an MP from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" faction, to deprive Grigol Vashadze, Georgian Foreign Minister, of his Russian citizenship.

The participants of the 4th All-Russian Forum of Young Parliamentarians, which was held on October 22-26 in Anapa, have addressed the Russian authorities and the Organizing Committee "Sochi-2014" with an offer to make the image of Sausoruko - the main hero of the Circassian epos "Narts" - the symbol of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games.

In the Volgograd Region, inspectors have finalized the case of a group of racketeers, which was headed by a high-ranking officer of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB). Their victims were local businessmen, who were forced to pay for the right to peacefully run their businesses.