News

The situation in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict zone is growing still tenser; it is deliberately aggravated and can get out of control, lieutenant colonel Yuri Vereschak, commander's assistant of the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces (MPKF) in the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone, has stated today.

The defense of Mikhail Trepashkin convicted for the disclosure of a state secret claim that the convict's health has deteriorated.

The first instance court of communities Center and Nork-Marash, Yerevan, has extended for two months the arrest of Alexander Arzumanian, former head of the Armenian MFA, accused of money laundering.

Boris Stomakhin, author of the "Caucasus-Center" site, convicted for instigating racial hostility and extremism, has been transferred from Moscow to Nizhni Novgorod pre-trial prison.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Natural Heritage and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) intend to dispatch an official expert mission for evaluating the condition of the "Western Caucasus", Russian object of the World Natural Heritage located in the vicinity of Sochi.

A film festival dedicated to the life of refugees in modern Russia has been completed. Employees of the "Civil Assistance" Committee showed the few visitors of the Moscow club "Gerry Rubin" a number of films shot by young film directors together with some human rights organizations.

The participants of recent "Disagreement March" in Riazan are being beaten and tortured by militia. The oppositionists intend to complain to the prosecutor's office.

In the course of a press-conference in Washington, Fatima Tlisova, chief editor of the North Caucasus IA Regnum, and Yuri Bagrov, Radio "Liberty" observer in Vladikavkaz, claim that the reasons for their escape are "numerous threats and persecution on the part of FSB and impossibility to freely do one's work."

President Putin is in Kennebunk, and whilst the local clam chowder restaurant translated their menu into Russian, the protesters demanded peace for Chechnya and compared Russian invasion to that of the situation in Iraq.

A man and a woman have been wounded during the shooting in South Ossetia. They are Yuriy Maisuradze, a Georgian, and Biazrova Asiat, an Ossetin. In its turn, it is reported from Georgia that today, a teenager has been killed in the Georgian village of Tamarasheni.

The arrest of Rizvan Talybov, chair of the committee to protect the rights of Ali Insanov, former minister of health, has been extended for yet one more month.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about an attack of Russian officers on Nukri Kacharayev, cameraman of the MZE independent Georgian TV company, when he was covering the withdrawal of Russian military machinery from the military base in Batumi (Ajaria, Georgia) on June 28.

Today morning, Nizami Ghuliyev, resident of Balakian and head of the local unit of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, has opened fire from a hunting rifle at police officers who came to his house. Nizami Ghuliyev, father of six children, has been unable to find a job due to political reasons.

A response has come to the photo-report on the situation of cheated shareholders in Stavropol, sent to Cezare Ottolini, president of "International Alliance of Residents" and representative of UN-Habitat.

On June 29, the international monitoring group (comprising military observers from the Russian, Ossetian and Georgian parties and military monitoring officers of the OSCE Mission in Georgia) conducted their monitoring and confirmed the statement of South Ossetia about shelling of its territory from the positions of armed formations under President Saakashvili's control.

Today, on June 29, a spontaneous meeting of Ingush residents started on the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the vicinity of the so-called Ekazhev Circle in the Nazran District.

13 detainees kept in the Nalchik pre-trial facility (SIZO) refused from their further participation in investigatory actions in protest against cremation of the bodies of the victims of the events on October 13, 2005.

Starting from the end of 2005, the Human Rights Centre "Demos" is implementing its inter-regional project "Drawing Public Attention to the Chechen Conflict from Viewpoint of Social Adaptation and Veterans' Professional Activities." On June 28, 2007, the results of almost two years of work were presented at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Today, the delegation of deceived shareholders returns from Moscow, told Vladimir Prikhodkin, leader of the Stavropol Organization of Deceived Shareholders, and added that as a whole in Stavropol there are 25 construction objects with deceived shareholders.

On June 18, 2007, 38 life inmates started a hunger strike in the Gobustan prison to draw the authorities' attention to their status. This is the fifth mass hunger strike in the Gobustan prison since 1999.