News

Today Evgeniy Zubov, Judge of the Moscow Regional Military Court, has refused to self-disqualify from the process on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper.

Boris Kuznetsov, former advocate of Levon Chakhmakhchyan, ex-senator from Kalmykia, who was convicted to nine years of deprivation of freedom, has filed a claim against Russia to Strasbourg to the European Court for Human Rights.

On November 21, 2008, Russian human rights activists made a visit to the Leningor District of South Ossetia bordering on Georgia. Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, a representative of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who took part in the visit, told the "Caucasian Knot" in her interview about the distress of the villagers in the District.

The topic of Holodomor (also known as Famine-1933) in Ukraine is being excessively politicized, however, the position of Ukrainian President on the issue deserves understanding, Azerbaijani politicians and political scientists believe.

On November 24, Elsie Hastings and Benjamin Cardin, co-chairs of the US Congress Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, sent a letter to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev with expression of their concern with the plans to stop in 2009 access of foreign radio companies, in particular Voice of America and Radio Liberty, to the frequencies controlled by the country's government.

Back in April 2008 the Georgian leadership was preparing the warfare in Abkhazia, having invited trainers from Israel; this was announced today by Erosi Kitsmarishvili, former ambassador of Georgia to Russia, at a sitting of the ad hoc parliamentary commission, which was set up for studying the August crisis in the Caucasus.

Today, President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has signed appointment decrees to various top positions in the Republic. Thus, Magomed-Sali Aushev, a well-known oppositional politician of Ingushetia, has been approved as the Deputy Chairman of the Government (Vice-Premier).

The litigation on the case on the murder of the "Novaya Gazeta" correspondent Anna Politkovskaya will be held in the open regime. The board of jurymen has reiterated their statement that they do not object to run the trial in the open regime. The state prosecution has supported the jurymen's statement. As a result, Judge Zubov made a respective decision, the "New Gazeta" reports.

In Moscow, at about midnight, a fight burst out between the natives from the Caucasus and those from Central Asia, in which some 15 persons took part. About ten persons suffered, and four were knifed.

Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has stated in the press conference in Moscow on November 24, dated to one year anniversary of the murder of Dagestan human rights activist and oppositional politician Farid Babaev, that armed conflicts in Dagestan have religious character.

After the "Caucasian Knot" published a news item about the protest action of municipal workers in the Iki-Burul District of Kalmykia, they were visited by representatives of various media and power bodies. The hunger-strikers told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

President of Poland Lech Kaczynski asks not to blame anybody for the incident in Georgia when unknown persons opened fire near the cars, which carried himself and President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. According to Mr Kaczynski, it was he who asked to change the route of the presidential cortege.

Law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic continue investigating the circumstances of the terror act in Sadovoe village, Grozny District, committed at night on November 23, when three employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya, and one local resident were killed, and eight more person, five militiamen among them, were heavily wounded.

A memory picket of Dagestan human rights activist and member of the "Yabloko" Party Farid Babaev took place today in Moscow near "Kropotkinskaya" Metro from 11:15 to 12:00 a.m. Moscow time.

Alexander Bastrykin, head of the ICPO, asserts that in the August conflict with South Ossetia, Georgia made use of mercenaries recruited in several countries.

President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has signed the ratification laws of the treaties on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin press service said today.

Further investigation of the criminal cases initiated against former commander of the "Vostok" battalion of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division of the Ministry of Defence of Russia Lieutenant Colonel Sulim Yamadaev will be held by military investigatory bodies.

The death roll of the explosion of a fixed-route taxi in the centre of Vladikavkaz has reached 12 persons, the spokesman of the Ministry of Public Health of North Ossetia has reported today.

European MP from Italy Julietto Chieza has managed to establish the whereabouts of the missing young men from South Ossetia, who had been taken in captivity by Georgian militaries and whose fate remained unknown.

Today, the Yasamal District Court of Baku, presided by Judge Fardy Mekhraliev, has rejected the claim filed by Einullah Fatullaev, imprisoned founder and editor-in-chief of the newspapers "Real Azerbaijan" and "Gyundelik Azerbaijan", against Elmar Mamedyarov, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan.