News

Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for preparing Olympiad-2014, has expressed his confidence that Russia will manage to get ready timely for holding the Winter Olympic Games; however, he has noted that today Sochi is not ready to be an Olympic capital.

In the capital of Azerbaijan, bureaucrats want to move about 50 families who live in the private houses allegedly subjects to demolition into the new ones built in the territory of destroyed Nariman cemetery.

Today, the Congress of Ingush Nation was opened. Its agenda has three points: public and political situation in the Republic and ways to improve it; adoption of the Law on Local Self-Government; and counteraction to corruption.

Today, Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, widow of the first president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, has announced a dry hunger strike in the reception room of the Republic's Hospitals in Tbilisi.

The Volgograd Region has published a collection of documents evidencing the damage caused by the actions of fascist troops during the Volga Battle in 1942-1943.

In 2010, for the first time in the last 20 years, South Ossetia will hold a national census. The decision was passed at the sitting of the presidium of the government of South Ossetia, where the respective bill was presented.

Azerbaijan will file an application for holding Olympic Games of 2020 in Baku. This statement was made by Azad Ragimov, Minister for Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan.

The Priyutnenskiy District of Kalmykia, 15 kilometres off the capital Elista, is finalizing the installation of wind power generators of the first wind power plant in the South of Russia. By 2010, they plan to commission the Republic's wind power yard consisting of 126 wind-driven generators for the aggregate power capacity of 150 megawatts.

Yesterday, on January 29, three residents of Chechnya, suspected of complicity with the armed underground groups, were detained in the Urus-Martan District by power agents. They assert that confiscated a grenade from one of the detainees.

On January 29, in the Kremlin, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev met Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", and Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR and a co-owner of the newspaper.

In Rostov-on-Don, about 50 former soldiers, the so-called "Afghans", have gathered today in the morning for holding a picket with a demand to allot land plots to them for building of dwelling houses.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that already before the start of today's session on the "Case of Seven" at least five hundred participants of the protest action have rallied near the building of the General Jurisdiction Court of the Shengavit community.

In Dagestan, militiamen have detained two persons suspected of taking part in illegal armed formations.

The decision of the court on illegality of detention in the airport of the city of Magas by law enforcement bodies of Magomed Evloev, owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru", who later perished in the militia car last August, has come into its legal force.

Ombudsman in Armenia Armen Arutyunyan has addressed Gevork Danielyan, Minister of Justice of Armenia, with a request to transfer Deputy Sasun Mikaelyan, accused under the "Case of Seven", who is suffering from cardiac insufficiency, into the prison hospital. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it at the press service of the oppositional Armenian National Congress.

The National Television and Radio Board (NTRB) of Azerbaijan has made its decision: the legislation is against foreign broadcasting in national frequencies. This was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Nushiravan Magerramli, head of the Board, who made his comments on the statement of the US Embassy that the American party is waiting for proposals on restart of broadcasting of the radio stations Liberty and Voice of America.

On January 31, Nazran will host the Congress of Ingush People, which will be the first for the last 6 years. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the Human Rights Organization "MAShR" and a delegate of the Congress.

Yesterday, on January 28, Valery Dyakonov, Deputy of the Municipal Duma of the city of Zverevo, joined the hunger strike of the miners-pensioners who demand enforcement of court decisions on granting them privileges on residential heating.

Deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia, accused on the "Case of Seven", namely - Akop Akopyan, Sasun Mikaelyan and Miasnik Malkhasyan - demand from the Parliament's speaker to convoke a session with their participation and the presence of the Public Prosecutor, so that the latter could present proofs of their guilt of organizing mass disorders on March 1 last year, which were accompanied by murders, and actions aimed at violent seizure of power.

In Chechnya, employees of power agencies continue detaining former participants of armed formations and their suspected helpers. Within the last 24 hours only, three local residents have been detained by law enforcers under suspicion of being militants.