News

Producers of milk from the regions of the South Federal District (SFD) are protesting against low purchase prices of their products, which for today, according to their version, are by ten percent below the production cost.

In the Astrakhan Region, in the territory of a closed territorial formation Znamensk, a mass fight burst out between Chechens and Russians with participation of 150 persons. The scuffle was accompanied by shooting and victims. The incident took place back on July 19; however, the information was concealed by local authorities and law enforcement bodies.

On July 31, the parliament of Georgia passed amendments to the law "On Broadcasting", according to which all foreign-made films should be dubbed into Georgian or provided with captions in this language prior to demonstration in the country; TV serials can be put on air only after translation into the state language.

The Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia demands to cancel the conditional sentence passed to Salman Archkhoev, an employee of the Department for Housing and Utilities (DHU), accused of embezzling a huge sum of money, earlier by the Sunzha District Court.

On July 30, the Odintsovo District Court of Moscow arrested the suspected attempter on Isa Yamadaev, brother of Sulim Yamadaev, ex-commander of the "Vostok" special battalion. Inspectors are afraid that the unfortunate killer can be liquidated by his crime accomplices.

In Armenia, on July 30, another oppositionist left the underground and surrendered to law enforcement bodies. Gamlet Ovannisyan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), who was in search since last March, is going to prove that statements of the authorities on amnesty are deceptive.

Today, at the extraordinary session of the Parliament of Georgia, the deputies have elected Georgiy Tugushi, 32, to be Georgia's new 'national defender' (Ombudsman); he is also a member of the Committee of the European Union against Violence and has worked for five years in the Ombudsman's office. 88 MPs voted for him, and 8 - against.

Professor Nikolai Kulikov, Doctor of Engineering in speciality "Water Supply and Sewage", author of more than 200 patents on inventions in water usage and a member of the Social-Ecological Board under Sochi Mayor, has stated that water in Sochi is full of dirt, although the local water supply and sewage service is advertising its European level.

The experts and journalists, who took part in the roundtable on the start of warfare in South Ossetia one year ago, spoke not only about the situation in the Caucasus a year after, but also about the modern geopolitical situation.

The incident on July 30, when Chechen militiamen opened occasional fire on the car with their Russian colleagues, having killed two of them, is treated in Chechnya as a "tragic accident", referring to external similarity of one of the casualties with a Wahhabite ideologist.

Despite the transfer of Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural Centre and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh), to the hospital of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice, he is still deprived of duly qualified medical aid. This is the topic of the statement of the Committee in Defence of Novruzali Mamedov's Rights that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent; last summer Mamedov was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for treason.

Isakhan Ashurov and Elton Guliev, advocates of arrested youth activists and bloggers Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli, accused of hooliganism, have laid an action to the Sabail District Court of Baku against the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the State Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan. In the opinion of the advocates, these bodies have broken the presumption of innocence principle.

In the afternoon on July 29, the Independent Press Centre hosted a press conference "Searches, interrogations, provocations, charges of tax crimes and terrorism against human rights defenders in Kazan", related to persecution by law enforcers of the Kazan Human Rights Centre and the inter-regional human rights association named "Agora".

The absence of any trustworthy information about the details of the attempt on Isa Yamadaev, committed in the evening on July 28 in Moscow, gives rise to various versions of the incident. Isa's relatives are sure that the attempt was initiated by the authorities of Chechnya, while the republic's law enforcers believe that it was staged. There is also an opinion that the attempt was a part of scenario aimed to discredit the republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

In reply to this night's information from South Ossetia about bombardment of Tskhinvali, the Georgian party has reported that Ossetians have shelled the Georgian MIA's post in the village of Zemo Nikozy.

Grant Melkumyan, leader of the Communist Party of Nagorno-Karabakh, finds it illogical that in debates on Karabakh settlement they talk about Azerbaijani refugees, while there are more than half-million refugees-Armenians from Azerbaijan. In his opinion, it is also necessary to raise the issue about a similar return of Armenian refugees to Azerbaijan and Shaumyan and Martuni Districts of Karabakh.

Today, while meeting members of youth organizations of Chechnya, President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made responsible Sheikh Said Buryatskiy, one of ideologists of Caucasian rebels, for the terror act committed on July 26 in central Grozny.

Salman Archkhoev, Chief Accountant of the Department for Housing and Utilities (DHU) in Sunzha District of Ingushetia, accused of embezzlement of over 90 million roubles from the state budget was sentenced to six years of conditional imprisonment and a fine at a rate of 50,000 roubles.

Makhmud Sakalov, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of Ingushetia, has reported at the sitting of the national parliament that President Yunus-Bek Evkurov, wounded as a result of a terror act, is now much better; Mr Evkurov is 46 today.

As a result of an attack on the militia unit in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, three militiamen were wounded.