News

Law-enforcement agencies conducted "total inspections" of documents of prayers in the Historical and Memorial Mosques in Moscow on February 27, Nafigulla Ashirov, co-chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia and chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Moslems of the Asiatic Part of Russia, reported to Ekho Moskvy Radio.

A hearing of the administrative case against Mikhail Kukobaka, an activist of the Transnational Radical Party and former Soviet political prisoner, was held at the Basmanny District Court on March 2. Mikhail Kukobaka was detained by the police on Lubyanskaya Square on February 23, during a meeting for peace and democracy in Chechnya banned by the Moscow authorities.

At the end of February - the begging of March, women from the Chechen Republic who temporarily live in the town of Ivanovo received summonses ordering them to appear in district police departments as witnesses in criminal cases.

Basnukayev was on the federal wanted list for the personal murder of 30 people and death of 200 more people as a result of other grave crimes.

The intellectuals are deeply concerned about the attitude towards the natives of Chechnya on the territory of the Russian Federation. In their opinion, the mass media play a large part in forming the negative image of the Chechens.

The matter of the open letter prepared by the Chernobyl liquidators for publication in press concerns the payment of compensation for health damage provided for by the law.

Two residents of Ingushetia were wounded in the center of Nazran during a detention of a man suspected of membership of illegal armed units.

Sub-units of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces have occupied the settlement of Gyrmyzykend in the Agderinsky district without any combat actions.

Almost all members of Chechen law enforcement agencies give a hefty percentage of their pay to Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the security service of his father Akhmad Kadyrov, leader of the republic. Prague Watchdog's correspondent learnt about these kickbacks from Chechen policemen who preferred not to be named.

Participants in the round table discussion were activists of non-government organizations (NGOs) and trade union organizations, members of regional branches of the Yabloko party, the Union of Right Forces (SPS) and the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Cossacks, and students.

The complaint was lodged at the instance of former hostages and relatives of the people killed in the Theatre Center on Dubrovka in 2002

Chechen government officials explain the necessity to liquidate the tent camps by poor living conditions there, "Tents have decayed, their operating period expired long ago, people often fall ill."

Kavkaz Center's editors received an e-mail from an anonymous address from an unknown earlier group called "Gazoton Murdash." The group's leader, who identified himself as Lom-Ali of Chechnya, made a statement in which he pointed out that his militarized organization claimed responsibility for the blast in the Moscow metro that happened on February 6.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II, Chairman of the Supreme Religious Council of Caucasian Peoples Sheikh Allakhshukyur Pasha-zade, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Iliya II and Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II took part in the meeting.

A workshop for journalists and 11 regional workshops for prosecutors, policemen and lawyers will be held shortly under Civil Society Institute's Problems of Pretrial Detention in Armenia program.

Two women were killed in a landmine explosion in the Achkhoy-Martan district in the morning on March 2.

"The study of the statement by the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry [issued in connection with the incident in Budapest] leads to disappointment. Instead of the condemnation having a single meaning, it contains explanations in the form of excuses. The statement is an attempt to blame the victim," said Head of the Armenian Delegation to the OSCE Jivan Tabibian.

Special attention at the meeting was devoted to the problem of people's employment, in particular, in Estonian villages, and granting help to them in the restoration of wine-growing and farm traditions.

The refugee camp Bart, located near the Ingush town of Karabulak, was totally dismantled on March 1, the deadline for eliminating of all Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia as set by the Chechen government in mid-January.

A presentation of the books "Council of Europe Documents in the Media Field" and "New Times" took place at the Armenian Journalists Association on February 27.