News

After cancellation of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, Chechnya sees a splash of violence causing tough reaction of the authorities. To defeat the rebels, Ramzan Kadyrov tries to cut them off from their social base - support from that part of the population who are still helping the members of IAFs (illegal armed formations). This was stated by Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Today, the Russian Ministry of Defence has stated that Russia will use force to defend residents of South Ossetia and Russian soldiers from Georgia's provocations.

Today, the Astrakhan militia has dispersed a rally of oppositionists, who gathered near the monument to victims of political repressions with posters: "Article 31 of the Constitution: right to speak and meet openly!", "You are personally wanted. Get out to streets, citizens!"

Azerbaijani officials have drafted a programme aimed to bring forced resettlers back to their homes in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, after the latter is liberated.

The armistice - stop of warfare against employees of power agencies, except for self-defence cases, announced by the government of non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) should come into force today in Chechnya. This initiative was put forward by Ahmed Zakaev, former emissary of Chechen separatists and now presenting himself as "the prime-minister of the government of Ichkeria in exile".

An observation post of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of South Ossetia was shelled today in the morning from the territory of Georgia. Two grenades were shot at the post from a grenade launcher.

In the afternoon on July 31, in the city of Urus-Martan, near the building of the district interior department, an explosion took place, wounding two local women. This became known to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from a source in the republic's power agencies.

Producers of milk from the regions of the South Federal District (SFD) are protesting against low purchase prices of their products, which for today, according to their version, are by ten percent below the production cost.

In the Astrakhan Region, in the territory of a closed territorial formation Znamensk, a mass fight burst out between Chechens and Russians with participation of 150 persons. The scuffle was accompanied by shooting and victims. The incident took place back on July 19; however, the information was concealed by local authorities and law enforcement bodies.

On July 31, the parliament of Georgia passed amendments to the law "On Broadcasting", according to which all foreign-made films should be dubbed into Georgian or provided with captions in this language prior to demonstration in the country; TV serials can be put on air only after translation into the state language.

The Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia demands to cancel the conditional sentence passed to Salman Archkhoev, an employee of the Department for Housing and Utilities (DHU), accused of embezzling a huge sum of money, earlier by the Sunzha District Court.

On July 30, the Odintsovo District Court of Moscow arrested the suspected attempter on Isa Yamadaev, brother of Sulim Yamadaev, ex-commander of the "Vostok" special battalion. Inspectors are afraid that the unfortunate killer can be liquidated by his crime accomplices.

In Armenia, on July 30, another oppositionist left the underground and surrendered to law enforcement bodies. Gamlet Ovannisyan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), who was in search since last March, is going to prove that statements of the authorities on amnesty are deceptive.

Today, at the extraordinary session of the Parliament of Georgia, the deputies have elected Georgiy Tugushi, 32, to be Georgia's new 'national defender' (Ombudsman); he is also a member of the Committee of the European Union against Violence and has worked for five years in the Ombudsman's office. 88 MPs voted for him, and 8 - against.

Professor Nikolai Kulikov, Doctor of Engineering in speciality "Water Supply and Sewage", author of more than 200 patents on inventions in water usage and a member of the Social-Ecological Board under Sochi Mayor, has stated that water in Sochi is full of dirt, although the local water supply and sewage service is advertising its European level.

The experts and journalists, who took part in the roundtable on the start of warfare in South Ossetia one year ago, spoke not only about the situation in the Caucasus a year after, but also about the modern geopolitical situation.

The incident on July 30, when Chechen militiamen opened occasional fire on the car with their Russian colleagues, having killed two of them, is treated in Chechnya as a "tragic accident", referring to external similarity of one of the casualties with a Wahhabite ideologist.

Despite the transfer of Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural Centre and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh), to the hospital of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice, he is still deprived of duly qualified medical aid. This is the topic of the statement of the Committee in Defence of Novruzali Mamedov's Rights that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent; last summer Mamedov was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for treason.

Isakhan Ashurov and Elton Guliev, advocates of arrested youth activists and bloggers Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli, accused of hooliganism, have laid an action to the Sabail District Court of Baku against the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the State Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan. In the opinion of the advocates, these bodies have broken the presumption of innocence principle.

In the afternoon on July 29, the Independent Press Centre hosted a press conference "Searches, interrogations, provocations, charges of tax crimes and terrorism against human rights defenders in Kazan", related to persecution by law enforcers of the Kazan Human Rights Centre and the inter-regional human rights association named "Agora".