News

Five days ago, in the city of Argun, the house that belonged to the family of suicide bomber Rustam Mukhadiev, who had blown up himself in central Grozny near the building of the theatre-concert hall, was burnt down. Local residents say that the action was carried out by employees of power agencies of Chechnya.

The inhabitants of three five-storey apartment blocks located on the Geidar Aliev Avenue in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, were offered to leave their flats before September 1 and move to new flats in the Narimanov District of the capital.

After studying the changes of the Russian antiterrorist legislation made in recent years, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) has concluded that the toughening measures mastered in the Caucasus were then transferred to the rest of Russia. This was stated by FIDH expert Ann Lyo Ueru, who is specializing on Russia, in particular, on antiterrorist methods within the conflict in Chechnya.

Georgiy Tugushi, 32, elected the new Ombudsman of Georgia at an extraordinary session of parliament on July 31, pans to preserve in his work many of the priorities fixed by his predecessor Sozar Subari. At the same time, in his opinion, every time has its challenges and moves its priorities, therefore, Mr Tugushi puts the refugees' problems into the forefront.

On August 4, at the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), at the trial on the events of October 13, 2005, an anonymous witness hidden under pseudonym "Seliverstov, Gerasim Lukich", an employee of the OMSN (special militia unit) of the KBR's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), gave his evidences.

The Georgian party has noted no special movements of Russian and South-Ossetian militaries after the decision of President of South Ossetia to close the border; local residents continue to cross the border, although the situation remains restless.

At a meeting with journalists dated to the first anniversary of the August events in South Ossetia, Grigoriy Karassin, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia had offered Georgia, through international intermediaries, to sign a document entailing prohibition of warfare in the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but Georgia refused to sign it.

Mother of Agasif Shakiroglu, chairman of the youth coalition "Khedef" (Aim), who was arrested on August 3 in Baku, believes that her son has fallen victim of a "pre-planned provocation."

Representatives of the family of journalist Anna Politkovskaya ask the Moscow Regional Military Court to return the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" back to the Prosecutor's Office. The same demand was moved by the state accusation; the defence has also supported the petition.

The overwhelming majority of Russian citizens - 86 percent - believe that Russia was right, or sooner right than wrong, during the war in South Ossetia in August 2008. This data was presented at a press conference held in the press centre of the RIA "Novosti" by Olga Kamenchuk, Director for Communications of the All-Russian Centre for Studying Public Opinion (known as VTsIOM), who summed up the results of the recent poll.

The today's appointment of Vadim Brovtsev as a new prime minister of South Ossetia is Eduard Kokoity's personal initiative; and the Kremlin has nothing to do with it, asserts Albert Dzhussoev, one of the major opponents of President of South Ossetia. He is very critical towards this choice, saying that today "is not the time to make experiments on the sick body of poor South Ossetia."

The editor-in-chief of the Internet resource "Ingushetia.Org" Rosa Malsagova has stated that she is receiving threats and can leave her post.

Today at midnight, the border of South Ossetia with Georgia will be closed, as declared by Eduard Kokoity, President of the republic, who has explained it "by recent frequent provocations from the Georgian party," and instances of "swine flu" in Georgia.

Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, has demanded from militia to stop issuing the so-called "trickster" license plates to car owners, asserting that these drivers are most often breaking the traffic rules and provoke accidents. This was reported today by the press service of the territorial administration.

Attempt on Isa Yamadaev - a member of the family, which is opposing the clan of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov; announcement by Ahmed Zakaev, former emissary of Chechen separatists and representative of the government of the non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), of moratorium on warfare by militants; escalation in the area of Georgian-Ossetian conflict; progress in relations of the authorities and opposition in Georgia and a viewpoint thereon of US Vice-President Joe Biden; update of the "Madrid principles" of settling the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh - look up these and other events in the review of the week from July 27 to August 2 prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On August 3, at the court session in Nalchik on the events on October 13, 2005, an anonymous witness hidden under a pseudonym of "Alexander Semyonov", a fighter of a special-purpose militia unit (known as "OMSN") of the Kabardino-Balkarian MIA, gave his evidence.

On August 3, the Lazarevskoe District Court of Sochi satisfied the claims for damage compensation lodged by ten young men, who were beaten by Sochi OMON (Special Militia) fighters in July 2006. To victims will get from 10 to 50 thousand roubles.

The unlucky killer of Isa Yamadaev, who tried to kill him on July 28 in Moscow, had once been his security guard, and, according to a source close to the Yamadaev family, was suborned to murder his former boss during his vacations spent in Chechnya.

On August 3, during the visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), independent journalists of the region were not let to the opening ceremonies of a number of social and economic objects.

As reported by the Georgian TV Company "Imedi", Russian militaries have detained 20 Georgians in the village of Otobaya, located on the Georgian-Abkhazian border.