News

Northern Caucasus remains one of the poorest Russian regions from the viewpoint of respect of human rights. This is the conclusion of the report entitled "Situation in Northern Caucasus. Autumn 2007 - Spring 2008" of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", prepared for the regular round of EU-Russia consultations on human rights that took place on April 16 in Ljubljana.

The region named Kvemo-Kartli, inhabited by most of the Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, is in a very grave situation - both economically and morally. For this reason many residents are forced to leave Georgia.

Today, the jury has acquitted Victor Vysokikh, deputy head of the Public Security Militia of Karelia, accused of professional negligence in relation to mass disorders in Kondopoga in 2006.

Rovshan Novruzoglu, an Azerbaijani political scientist and Director of the Centre for Fighting Corruption and International Terrorism, has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment with serving the punishment in a general custody colony.

Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, has instructed the government to start consultations on admission of Georgian goods to the Russian market and on cancelling visa restrictions for citizens of Georgia.

The cooperation of the authorities of the Chechen Republic with human rights activists is not thus efficient as could be expected after the meeting on February 22 of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov with representatives of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial".

Local ecologists think that the agenda of the Mission of the UNESCO's Centre of World Heritage and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in Krasnodar Territory and Adygea should be amended.

In Armenia, the GALA TV Company looks for alternatives to restart broadcasting. Vaan Khachatryan, owner of the TV Company, has assured that GALA will surely find a new place for its sending antenna.

The public of Kabardino-Balkaria is positive towards the orders issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin on rendering subject support to Russian citizens living in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Parliamentarians of the Chechen Republic ask Anatoly Serdyukov, Russian Minister of Defence, to disband the "Vostok" (East) special purpose battalion, or to replace its commander Sulim Yamadaev.

The US State Department has reiterated that it does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh to be an independent state, but will continue its efforts towards peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Einullah Fatullaev, editor-in-chief of the "Real Azerbaijan" newspaper, will remain in prison's dungeon till April 20.

In Armenia, the broadcasting of the oppositional GALA TV Company is stopped. On April 16, the court marshals dismantled its broadcasting equipment - they performed the decision of the Cassation Court of Armenia.

The Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for Dagestan has failed to find any crime elements in the actions of Rizvan Rizvanov, the founder of the newspaper "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time), and decided not to open a criminal case against him.

April 15 was the deadline for submitting operation reports by all the non-commercial organizations, with no exceptions. Human rights activist believe that Russia can launch mass closing of NCOs.

Representatives of human rights and public organizations of Chechnya demand to make accountable the special-purpose battalion of the GRU named "Vostok" (East), which took part in the conflict with the guards of Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya that burst out in Gudermes.

In the memorandum published on April 15, the committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for observance of human rights in Northern Caucasus has recognized the situation with human rights in the region to be "very disturbing".

The demand of the Council of Europe concerning political prisoners in Armenia remains unchanged: people shall not be imprisoned for their political convictions.

At the rally that is planned in Ingushetia in May the opposition will demand to return the first President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev back as the Republic's President.

Colonel Seiran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Armenia, has rejected the information that the newly appointed Minister of Defence General-Colonel Seiran Oganyan had taken part in massacres of the Azerbaijani peaceful population in 1992 and was announced into search by the Interpol.