News

The wife of Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned ex-officer of the FSB, whose health condition has seriously aggravated during the last night and became extremely grave, was urgently called to the London University Hospital, where the patient is kept. Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko's friend, told about it and explained in his interview to the BBC that "most probably, now he is connected to the artificial blood circulation system".

Representatives of human rights organizations deployed in Chechnya confirm the statement of the Human Rights Watch international organization that kidnappings and tortures of detained persons continue in this Republic.

On November 22 in Makhachkala, several hundreds of residents of the Kazbekovskiy District of Dagestan tried to hold a meeting to demand dismissal of Amir Azaev, head of District administration.

On November 22, the Independent Press Centre held a presentation of the report named "Tortures in Chechnya: Stabilization of Nightmare."

On November 21 in the Iranian city of Tabriz, students of religious schools held a protest action against the statements concerning Prophet Mohammed, published in Azerbaijani newspaper "Sanat," in publicist Rafik Tagi's article named "Europe and We."

"There are two reasons for killing Armenians in Russia. Firstly, the Russian society is sick with xenophobia, secondly, there is an order to kill Armenians in Russia," thinks Levon Ananyan, Chairman of Armenian Writers' Guild.

Today, Russia has deported a group of Georgia citizens who were illegally staying in the Russian territory, Konstantin Poltoranin, press-secretary of the Federal Migratory Service, reported.

Mario Skaramella gave a press conference for the first time after Alexander Litvinenko, former Russia's FSB agent, was poisoned.

The decision of the Leninskiy Court of Vladikavkaz to recognize the complex situational examination, which has concluded innocence of the members of the hostage rescue operative headquarters, to be illegal and unjustified can radically change the investigation course of the basic case on the Beslan act of terror and bring into challenge certain conclusions of Torshin commission.

Relatives of Boris Stomakhin, author of the "Kavkaz-Tsentr" (Caucasus-Centre) web-site of Chechnya separatists who was convicted to five years in custody, announced that they would appeal against the judgment.

In the recent months less people have been kidnapped in Chechnya, however the Republic's authorities have failed so far to eradicate the problem completely, the human rights activists from the "Memorial" Russian Centre have stated.

In Chechnya, people think that liquidation of Movladi Baisarov, former commander of the "Gorets" (Mountaineer) special squadron was an act of intimidation, and they believe that his arresters were not going to leave him alive.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation has refuted accusations of possible involvement in poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London.

The Butyrskiy District Court of Moscow has recognized guilty and sentenced Boris Stomakhin, editor-in-chief of the bulletin "Radical Policy" and journalist of the "Caucasus-Centre" web-site, to five years of imprisonment at a general custody treatment for excitation of religious hatred accomplished publicly with use of mass media.

The Izmailovskiy District Court of Moscow has sentenced three defendants on the case of attacking Zaur Tutov, minister of culture of Kabardino-Balkaria, for conditional deprivation of freedom in a colony-settlement for the terms from twelve to eighteen months.

The murder of the former commander of the "Gorets" (Mountaineer) special squadron, lieutenant colonel of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) Movladi Baisarov became possible because the FSB operative shelter was removed from him after he had decided to evidence at the Military of the Office of Public Prosecutor on what happens in Chechnya.

Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned under a direct order from the Kremlin, Oleg Gordievskiy, former resident of Soviet special services in Great Britain and one of major deserters from the KGB, has declared.

Ruslan Eliev, 31, a refugee from Chechnya, has disappeared in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, under unclear circumstances.

About 10 p.m. on November 17, three unknown persons in camouflage and armed with automatic guns rushed into a private house in Kirova Street of the Dongaron village of North Ossetia.

For 12 days in a row already, the refugees of the settlement named "Maiskiy" in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia have been living in their unheated dillies, since on November 6 the authorities stopped gas supply, and on November 14 disconnected the camp from electricity.