News

Arkadiy Yedelev, deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia, stated on Tuesday in Grozny that in April a delegation of the US Department of State will arrive to Chechnya to borrow the experience of settling regional conflicts.

Today, the Lazarevskiy District Court of the city of Sochi has continued the process on allegations of a group of OMON (special militia) fighters of exceeding their official powers with application of violence in the "Druzhba" (Friendship) children's camp last summer.

The Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan (HRCA) is satisfied with the govt's efforts to settle the problem of political prisoners.

Sultan Sosnaliev, Abkhazian defence minister, has blamed as 'prevocational' the information of the Georgian party that "last night, two MI-24 combat helicopters and two SU-25 aircrafts flew into the Kodor Gorge from the territory of Abkhazia and remained over it for half an hour."

At today's trial on the case of Ali Insanov, ex-minister of public health of Azerbaijan, the defendant made another sensational statement. This time, he has accused the authorities of political assassination of Rafik Feizullaev, former minister of education.

Currently, 37 armed groupings with a total strength of 450 persons operate in Chechnya, general-colonel Arkady Yedelev, head of the operations headquarters for North Caucasus, has told today to the press conference in Grozny.

On March 19, an opening ceremony of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline was held with participation of Robert Kocharyan and Mahmud Ahmadinejad, presidents of Armenia and Iran.

Today, the Sabailskiy Court of the capital of Azerbaijan held a preparatory session on the case of publicist Rafik Tagi and Samir Sadagatoglu, editor of the "Sanat" newspaper.

As a result of a special operation conducted today in the Untsukulskiy District of Dagestan, no militants were detained or liquidated.

As soon as the end of March, the United States will help Azerbaijan, within the framework of fighting the avian flu virus, in building special laboratories in 12 regions of the country and equipping them with the required equipment.

Raul Khadzhimba, vice-president of Abkhazia, does not exclude that after Georgia's accession to NATO the situation may considerably aggravate not only in the Caucasian countries but also in the whole North Caucasian Region, which is administratively represented by the South Federal District (SFD) of Russia.

Today, Ismail Baikhanov, chairman of the Chechen Republic's Central Electoral Commission (CEC), has informed that the referendum on making changes in the constitution of Chechnya is planned to be held before next October.

Ali Insanov, ex-minister of public health of Azerbaijan has told his lawyers that as of today he goes on hunger strike. The reason, he has stated, is the biased character of his trial.

The sitting of the Sabail Court of the city of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on the case of publicist Rafik Tagi and the editor of newspaper "Sanat" Samir Sadatoglu, accused of kindling religious enmity, will take place on March 19 under the chair of Judge Yusif Kerimov.

Today, at the North Caucasian Regional Military Court, at the process on Ulman's case, they have finished to interrogate the last defendant - major Alexei Perelevskiy.

According to the enacted court ruling, the remaining families who are fundamentally refusing to quit their housing facilities will be forced out of the spontaneous settlement of Maiskiy in North Ossetia, where the victims of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict have been living for 13 years.

The "Caucasian Knot" has already informed that the world's largest human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) made a statement accusing Russian authorities of using tortures in Chechnya.

Orkhan Jemal, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Smysl" (Sense) magazine and an expert in North Caucasian problems thinks that the only improvement of the situation with terrorism in Kabardino-Balkaria is the replacement of the top management of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced at his meeting with journalists on Friday that the Public Prosecutor's Office was launching a criminal case on the facts of mockery and tortures at the Operations and Search Bureau (the so-called "ORB-2") of the city of Urus-Martan.

This spring the farmland of Chechnya will be completely cleared of mines and unexploded shells.