News

Sergeant Alexander Glukhov who deserted his military unit based in Akhalgori for Georgia was not the first one to quit Russian military troops deployed in South Ossetia. Shortly before the incident with Glukhov, another soldier had tried to run away home via Georgia; however he was detained there and sent back.

In the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, the debts of miners-pensioners are collected in the mass order through the court. Valery Dyakonov, deputy of the city duma of Zverevo, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that five trials took place in recent days and ruled to collect the pensioners' indebtedness for heating on the suits lodged by the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Donenergo".

Residents of Sochi are going to file a complaint against Russian government to the European Court on Human Rights about mass violations of the European Convention on Human Rights under the aegis of the forthcoming Olympic Games.

Today, court marshals and officials of the Agency for Managing State Property of the Republic of Dagestan (former Ministry of Property and Land Relations) arrived in the "Charitable Women's Hospital" located in Makhachkala.

Yesterday, on February 2, late at night, the police arrested Khikmet Veliev, a resident of Nardaran and an active participant of recent anti-Israeli actions held in this settlement located 30 km north-east of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" demands from Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov to coordinate the route of the action planned on February 8 in memory of assassinated Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova and other recent victims of politically motivated terror in Moscow.

Two residents of Chechnya have been detained by employees of law enforcement bodies in the foothill Achhoy-Martan District. The detainees are accused of helping participants of illegal armed formations (IAFs).

Liudmila Sarkisyan, Chair of the "Gnchak" Social-Democratic Party, asserts that the authorities of Armenia have no proofs on the "Case of Seven", therefore, the litigation is under risk to turn into a mere farce.

The authenticity of the list of 300 natives from Chechnya, sentenced to death by President Kadyrov, which was published in the western press, has not been proved yet. This was stated by Chris Chivers, one of the authors of the article published in the American "New York Times", in his exclusive interview to the "Caucasian Knot"; the article was about the story told by the murdered Chechen emigrant Umar Israilov about the cruelty of the Chechen regime.

Today, the international human rights organization "Reporters without Borders" has criticized the course of the trial on the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper. This is the topic of press release disseminated by the organization.

The international organization "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) engaged in defending journalists' rights has sent letters to the authorities of Azerbaijan in the context of persecutions of independent journalists in Nakhichevan.

In the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan, pressure has strengthened on local independent journalists - Malakhat Nasibova, regional correspondent of the Turan News Agency and the Azerbaijan Service of Radio Liberty, Khyakimeldostu Mekhtiev and Elman Abbasov, local representatives of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS). The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by the journalists themselves.

Several speakers to the rally in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, held on February 1 in Chistye Prudy in Moscow, called Russians to mass protests against the ruling regime and revelry of neo-Nazis. Despite the frost, four hundred persons came to take part.

The investigation of the murder case of Farid Babaev, leader of the Dagestan "Yabloko" Party, lacked due care. The analysis of the materials of the case and the whole litigation process give rise to the idea that either inspectors themselves set up a certain "barrier" beyond which the inquiry should not move, or such barrier had been imposed by someone. This is the topic of today's statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

On February 1, law enforcers detained a resident of the Staropromyslovskiy District of the capital of Chechnya, who, according to the investigation, in 2007 supplied foodstuffs to members of illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The Moscow Regional Military Court has ruled to hold its next session on Anna Politkovskaya's murder case on February 3.

Three miners-pensioners, who take part in the hunger strike held in the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, have been hospitalized because of health deterioration.

The Command of the 58th Army asserts that Junior Sergeant Alexander Glukhov who found himself in the territory of Georgia could have been recruited by Georgian special services.

The law enforcement bodies of Georgia assert that today observers from the European Union and a group of foreign journalists were shelled from the territory of Abkhazia near the village of Shamgona, Zugdidi District. Abkhazia declares that it has nothing to do with the incident.

Today in Dagestan, a clock-operated explosive was detected under the main Mozdok-Kazimagomed gas pipeline. The bomb was neutralized.