News

Law enforcers' raids aimed to identify illegal migration in the Ilovlinsky District were inefficient and offensive; only five people out of hundreds of checked members of the Roma community received summonses to the military commissariat (registration and enlistment office). The raids became a way to replenish the ranks of special military operation (SMO) fighters at the expense of naturalized migrants.

The court has partially satisfied the claim of Igor Zakharov, who was held hostage by terrorists in the Dubrovka Theatrical Centre and claimed moral harm compensation from authorities.

In Moscow, a court arrested blogger Areg Schepikhin for two months in a case on calls for extremism and incitement of hatred. The court hearing was held without allowing journalists to enter the courtroom. Footage from the courtroom shows traces of beatings on the Areg Schepikhin’s face.

Schema-abbot Gavriil, who stated in his sermon that Muslims, on orders of a mullah, could slaughter all residents of Moscow, has been dismissed from his post as the head of the Sochi stead of the Valaam Monastery. The dismissal of Schema-abbot Gavriil followed a demand for an apology voiced by Apti Alaudinov.

The Uspensky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory did not pass a sentence on Nikolai Nabiev, Sergey Kuzovenko, and Marina Zakharova, accused of creating an illegal armed formation (IAF), and transferred the case to the Southern District Military Court for consideration.

The Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has included Chechen human rights defender Ruslan Kutaev*, who lives abroad, in the register of foreign agents.

Social media users treat the prices of sacrificial animals on the Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayram) holiday as too high; and not everyone agrees with the call of the Chechen Mufti not to sell animals’ skins. The charitable funds of the republics of Northern Caucasus have reported on the free distribution of animal meat and food packages.

Seven minors from the Stavropol Territory, whom investigators treat as members of an extremist community, have been taken into custody. Another teenager has been placed under house arrest.

The court has sentenced Grigory Belik, a resident of Kuban (Krasnodar Territory), to a fine of 176,000 roubles for his critical assessment of the May 9 celebrations. The man has emphasized that he treats the Victory Day itself a holy holiday.

When commenting on the statements of blogger Areg Schepikhin about Chechens and Muslims, fighters of the “Akhmat” special forces claimed that the incitement of ethnic hatred during military operations should be punishable by death.

About a dozen people whom Tatiana Polivanova helped defend their rights to land plots in litigation with officials came to support her at a court hearing on the issue of a pre-trial restriction measure, but the activist was not brought to the Sochi court. Those gathered signed an appeal in defence of Tatiana Polivanova.

A court has sentenced four residents of Tatarstan to long terms of imprisonment in a case on the attack on Pskov paratroopers in Chechnya in 2000.

A court in Kuban (Krasnodar Territory) has explained the lenient sentence in the case of the beating up of Fyodor Valko by the fact that the defendants had no "desire to cause particular sufferings to the victim"; however, human rights defenders treat the interpretation of the law by the court as erroneous. The convicted law enforcers have appealed against the sentence, while Valko will seek to recognise their actions as torture.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has initiated a criminal case against Areg Schepikhin, a blogger, who was kidnapped at the Yaroslavsky Railway Station in Moscow. Today, they plan to choose a freedom restriction measure for his kidnappers.

The Rostov Regional Court has sentenced a 56-year-old resident of the Rostov Region, whom law enforcers had accused of transferring money to a Ukrainian account, to 12 years of strict regime.

At least several men arrested in May during a series of searches in Nalchik and Nartan have complained to their advocates about torture. Relatives of the defendants are seeking a meeting with the leader of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation reports about the institution of a criminal case after the incident with a blogger at the Yaroslavsky Railway Station, announcing the detention of “all the suspects involved in the case.” Only three out of the six suspects have been detained pending trial to determine the pre-trial restriction measure, sources in the law enforcement bodies report.

The police conducted a search at the home of activist Tatiana Polivanova in Sochi and took her to an IVS (temporary detention facility). The court is preparing to pronounce a pre-trial restriction measure with regard to the activist, accused of acting as an intermediary in the transfer of a bribe. The relatives of the activist associate the prosecution with the Tatiana Polivanova’s public activities.

Evgeny Popov, a Russian State Duma MP, and Eva Merkachova, a human rights defender, regard the actions of law enforcers who had kidnapped Areg Schepikhin at the train station and took him away in a car trunk as unacceptable. A source from Chechen authorities said that law enforcers saved the blogger from Muslims’ wrath; and the detention was not too harsh.

The kidnapping of the blogger, Areg Schepikhin, has recalled the involvement of Chechen law enforcers in the disappearance of Salman Tepsurkaev and the detention circumstances of Zarema Musaeva. The details of the incident leave open the issue of whether law enforcers in Moscow were notified of the actions of their Chechen colleagues.