News

Today, the Parliament of Abkhazia has passed two appeals with a demand to recognize the state independence of the Republic of Abkhazia.

On March 4, a verdict was passed in Krasnodar to former troopers who beat Turkish construction workers.

On March 5, in the district of Los Angeles known as "Small Armenia", several thousands protesters rallied to voice against the violence applied to peaceful demonstrators in Yerevan on March 1.

Today at 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, the Service of State Security of Abkhazia released two Georgian journalists of the TV Company "Mze" Malkhaz Basilaya and David Tsotsoriya and handed them over to employees of the UN Office for Human Rights.

The Human Rights Centre "Memorial" is concerned with detention of human rights activist Mikhail Kriger, coordinator of the Anti-War Club, who was a regular participant of pickets against the policy of the Kremlin in Northern Caucasus and the war in Chechnya, in particular.

As of the present moment, 132 activists of the opposition have been arrested in Armenia; they were charges under a number of Articles of the Criminal Code.

The Cossacks of the Tersk Army are indignant with the corruption in the Stavropol Territory and the course of investigation of the murder of Ataman Andrei Khanin, 34.

Today, the Supreme Court of Russia has upheld the acquittal verdict to commanders of the Malgobek ROVD of Ingushetia accused of professional negligence during the events in Beslan in September 2004.

In the Krasnodar territory, a militiaman was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment for beating Nishik Sloyan, a resident of Pshekhskaya village, during interrogating the latter.

On March 4, the Promyshlenny Court of North Ossetia postponed the hearing on the complaint of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan" against the actions of the investigatory group of the State Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation till March 11.

Fifty percent of the victims of political repressions who live now in the Stavropol Territory are positively treating Joseph Stalin, since today they live worse than under Stalin's rule, Claudia Podrez, chair of the Stavropol Regional public organization of invalids-victims of political repressions, said.

On March 4, two suspects of murdering Farid Babaev, leader of the Dagestan branch of the "Yabloko" Party, were brought the Tyumen Region of Russia to Dagestan.

Many of the important witnesses of the mass falsifications undertaken during the election on February 19 are now under arrest, and it hampers to studying the case in the court.

At today's session of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria on the case of the attack on Nalchik, one of the defendants, Zaur Tokhov, has stated that the workers of the SIZO had tried to strangle him, and named these workers.

The members of the oppositional United National Board held an extraordinary briefing in the Office of the People's Party and announced that a new wave of protests would be launched at the Parliament of Georgia at 2:00 p.m. on March 9.

On March 3, President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh received a group of Abkhazian journalists who had addressed him with a demand to release the Georgian journalists detained by the employees of the Republic's State Security Service on February 26.

The Council of Europe is highly concerned with mass disorders in Armenia and calls on the authorities to investigate the deaths of people at night on March 2. This is the topic of the statement made by Terry Davis, Secretary General of Council of Europe.

On March 3, President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan received Peter Semneby, Special Representative of the European Union for South Caucasus. During the meeting, they discussed the post-election processes in Armenia, in particular, the situation in Yerevan and possible ways out of it.

At night on February 26, in the village of Ignatovka, Mainovskiy District, Ulyanovsk Region, two villagers committed a murder of a Gipsy aged 24 and his daughter of 18 months. On February 26, the killers were detained, and they pled guilty. However, three days later one of them was released.

The Parliament of South Ossetia has addressed the UN Secretary General, the President, Council of the Federation and State Duma of Russia, as well as the heads of the CIS states and parliaments and EU countries with a request to recognize the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia.