News

On May 26, the country's Independence Say, the Georgian opposition plans holding a "grandiose rally" in Tbilisi with a demand of Mikhail Saakashvili's resignation. At the same time, its leaders complain of reduced number of protesters.

On May 15, a broad-scale special operation with participation of units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Federal Troops was launched in the mountainous part of Chechnya.

At the Georgian festival "Tbilisi Open Air - Alter/Vision" held in Tbilisi in parallel with Moscow's "Eurovision", everybody performs what he or she wants and everybody has the right to express one's opinion. This was stated by Anna Sikharulidze, organizer of the festival.

The young men, whose liquidation was reported today by the MIA of Chechnya and who were named as helpers of the suicide-bomber who committed the terror act in Grozny on May 15, did not render any armed resistance to militiamen. Natalia Estemirova, representative of the HRC "Memorial", told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" with reference to eyewitnesses.

On May 12, in the semi-final round of "Eurovision", at the background of the duet from Armenia the symbol of Nagorno-Karabakh - the monument "We and our mountains" was shown. Under the pressure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, the organizing committee of "Eurovision" removed this fragment from the caption.

Russian frontier guards have started improving the border of South Ossetia with Georgia. Six frontier outposts for Russian and Ossetian militaries have already been set up.

For the fifth time already, Armenia holds the action called "Night of Museums" and dated to the International Museums Day. Today, from 6:00 p.m. till midnights the doors of 17 Yerevan and 6 regional museums located in Syunik, Shirak and Lori will be broadly opened for the public.

Abkhazia will not take part in the fifth round of Geneva debates planned to be held on May 18-19. This was stated by Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia.

Last night, an off-road hotel and a sauna, situated in the Malgobek District of Ingushetia, were shelled from grenade launchers, as reported by a source in Republic's law enforcement bodies.

The MIA of the Chechen Republic reports about liquidation in Grozny of four militants who planned a series of wide-scale terror acts in the city. According to the militia, they all were members of the same grouping as the militant who blew himself up on May 15 at the MIA headquarters.

On the International Family Day, May 15, the government of the Karachaevo-Circassian Republic (KCR) decorated mothers having many children with the medal "Mother's Glory". Fifty mothers who have brought up five and more children were awarded.

At the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, the Russian Federation has lost two cases to residents of Chechnya, who accused Russia's authorities of disappearance and murder of their relatives.

According to the conclusion of experts from the Ministry of Public Health, Shant Arutyunyan, one of the defendants in the former "Case of Seven", "in the moment of committing his crime was in the state of mental insanity." On the basis of the conclusion of the forensic medical examination, the criminal case against Mr Arutyunyan is stopped.

Today, in Yerevan, at Matenadaran, a rally of the opposition was held that brought together about 30 thousand persons. After the rally, many thousands of them marched along the streets of the capital. People from transport means and house windows welcomed them. The participants of the march were shouting: "Free, independent Armenia!" and "Levon is President!" The march was accompanied by policemen. The action passed without incidents.

On May 14, the day of sitting of the IOC Commission in Sochi, militiamen detained and took away from Vinogradnaya to Gorki Street in militia vans the ten persons who tried to hold a protest picket against 2014 Sochi Olympiad.

At night on May 10, in Bachi-Yurt village, Kurchaloy District of Chechnya, unidentified power agents kidnapped four persons. All of them are elderly people.

The bosses of the chemical factory "Nairit" in Yerevan, where a strong fire occurred in the evening on May 14, announced the names of their four lost workers. Russia has expressed its readiness to help Armenia in liquidating the accident consequences.

There are no grounds to look for any links between the murder of Vitaly Bogatyryov, deputy head of the investigatory isolation facility (SIZO) of Russia's UFSIN (Department of the Federal Punishment Enforcement Service) for Kabardino-Balkaria, with the complaints against custody conditions in SIZO of the defendants in the case about the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005. This is the opinion of advocate Magomed Abubakarov.

After the meeting of President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili with the leaders of the nongovernmental opposition, many oppositionists understood that the event was just Saakashvili's formal gesture aimed at the West, and he is not ready to make any concessions. This was stated by Georgian political scientist Paata Zakareishvili to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As reported by the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia, a result of the explosion near the building of the MIA of Chechnya in Grozny, four persons were lost and at least five wounded.