News

At the process on Anna Politkovskaya's murder, a new version of the crime was presented: the order to kill the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" was given to Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, uncle of Makhmudov brothers, back in summer of 2006. However, since he was convicted, he passed the order over to Sergey Hadzhikurbanov.

Anatoly Pakhomov, Acting Mayor of the city of Sochi, has notified the residents of the Imereti Valley that to clear space for construction of Olympic objects they should finally move out of their houses by March 31.

At night of February 16, several thousands of inhabitants of the Sergokala District of Dagestan blocked the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the vicinity of Izberbash city. The picketers demanded to punish the employees of law enforcement bodies who heavily wounded, on the previous day, February 15, in the course of their counterterrorist operation, a local resident named Bashir Magomedov, 24, having initially blamed him to be a militant.

The remaining four persons killed on February 11 in Kabardino-Balkaria in the course of a special operation held in Gerpegezh village have been identified. Three casualties were identified earlier.

Today, the advocates defending the family of Magomed Evloev, former owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", who died on August 31, 2008, have lodged a complaint to the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) with a demand to initiate a criminal case against the militiamen, who had illegally detained Evloev at the airport of Magas, as one of the advocates Musa Pliev has explained.

Out of seven supposed militants killed on February 11 in the vicinities of Nalchik, three have been identified. They are residents of Khasanya village Takhir Osmanov and Beslan Shavaev, and Khizir Bichekuev, a resident of Kendelen village.

Today Sochi has hosted a presentation of the completed city general development plan. Prior to send the general plan for coordination to the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, the authors presented their work to the Public Town-Planning Board of Sochi.

Over 200,000 enthusiasts will take part in the open All-Russian mass cross-country ski race "Lyzhnya Rossii" (Russia's Ski Track) to be held on February 15 in the Volgograd Region.

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykia received a case for consideration of a murder and a murder attempt, which took place when adults went to settle a children's quarrel.

Cyprus has stated its intention to open a general consulate in Krasnodar. This possibility was announced on February 12 by Sergey Lavrov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Nerses Eritsyan, Minister of Economy of Armenia, has reported that the dates, when Russia will provide the 500 million US dollar stabilization credit to Armenia, are not defined yet, same as the direction of spending it.

Issuance of Georgian visas to Russian citizens suspended in early September 2008 will resume after opening of respective sections at the Embassy of Switzerland in March 2009, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia has reported.

One of the best projects presented at the exhibition of the Caspian Innovations Forum held in the city of Astrakhan was recognized to be the proposal moved by the scientists of the Caspian Branch of the P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Authors of the project told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about their achievements and plans for the future.

The Ombudsman of Armenia Armen Arutyunyan has expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that until now he has received no answers to the questions announced in his report on mass disorders on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan.

The Volgograd Region suffers from injurious plundering of the monuments of historical and cultural heritage. This was sated by the participants of the 20th Local Lore Readings held on February 12-13 in Volgograd. The event brought together 250 presenters from 11 Districts of the Region.

Tbilisi is displeased with the work of the International Commission of the EU (EUIC) on investigating the reasons of the August war in South Ossetia and recommends excluding several experts from the commission, whom they believe to be non-objective.

The Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia is going to oblige the owners of the website "Ingushetia.Org" to register the website as a mass medium. However, Rosa Malsagova, owner and editor-in-chief of the website, is sure that under the law such registration can only be voluntary.

Two Georgian human rights NGOs - "Article 42 of the Constitution" and Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia - have filed complaints to the European Court on Human Rights on behalf of the peaceful citizens who suffered from the conflict of Georgia with the Russian Federation.

One of these days, they plan to extend the authorities of the temporary parliamentary commission in charge of investigating the tragic consequences of disorders in Yerevan on last March 1-2. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Armen Arutyunyan, Ombudsman of Armenia and a member of the commission.

Today, a law was passed in Armenia, according to which the judge has now the right to remove defendants out of the courtroom for exhibiting disrespect of the court. Should any advocates refuse to take part in the trial, the judge has powers to appoint new advocates. The law has come into force after ratification by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan (Sarkisyan).