News

New amendments to the Constitution of Georgia will simplify the procedure of government's dismissal by the parliament, while the president will not be able to dissolve the parliament. This was declared on December 26 by President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, who gave comments on his legislative initiative, which will be discussed by the parliament on December 29.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has found out that hundreds of millions roubles allocated from the federal budget are disappearing in his Republic. He told about it at his meeting held in Magas on December 24 with Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), and Valery Borschov, a member of the MHG and of the Bureau of the "Yabloko" Party.

The Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is making, upon permission of the authorities, regular emissions of small dozes of radioactive substances into the environment. Ecologists assert that this is harmful for local residents and ecology. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the NGO named "Ekozaschita!" (Ecology Protection).

The referendum on amendments and additions to the Constitution of Azerbaijan will take place on March 18, 2009. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that this decision was passed today by the country's parliament.

In the Rostov Region, all the attempts to bring Valery Dyakonov, one of the organizers of the picket and hunger strike of miners-pensioners and deputy of the city duma of Zverevo, to administrative responsibility have ended in a failure. The court found no violations of the law in Mr Dyakonov's actions.

On December 28, in Krasnodar, the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus will hold a protest action "In Defence of Utrish Unique Nature Complexes".

The fourth round of choosing jurymen held at the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria for the trial on the events on October 13, 2005, brought only one juryman. Meanwhile, the term of appointment of the earlier selected jurymen expires already on January 1.

A mass protest action is now held in the capital of Chechnya in the context of early relief from the colony of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, guilty of murdering Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva, 17, in March 2000.

The attack on December 22 in the capital Karachaevo-Circassia on journalist Zhanna Akbasheva was committed when she was performing her editorial task. She thinks that she was beaten for her publications criticizing the Republic's authorities.

Kerim Malkarov, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, accused of a murder, has been kept at the Nalchik investigatory isolation facility for almost seven months already. On December 22, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld the decision of the Nalchik City Court on extending his custody.

Residents of the Imereti Valley - the territory of the would-be Olympic Village in Sochi - have managed to prevent the declared demolishment of their houses, delay the alienation of their land plots and insist on creations of exchange stock of land plots and construction of new houses as a precondition of resettling.

On December 24, the City Court of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Region) satisfied the petition of former Colonel Yuri Budanov for conditional early relief (CER). If there is no appeal against, Budanov will be released on January 11.

The Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEM&DT) has promulgated its expert's judgement on the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments and Additions in the Constitution of Azerbaijan", designed on initiative of the ruling Party "Eni Azerbaijan" (PEA).

Georges Bush's administration disagrees with the conclusions of Russian government that this August the authorities of Georgia made a genocide attempt in South Ossetia.

On December 23, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria continued selecting jurymen for the trial of the criminal case on the events of October 13, 2005. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by advocate Magomed Abubakarov.

Opening ceremony of the monument "To Victims of Political Repressions" took place in Volgograd, 12 years after its initiation. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was present at the ceremony.

The Constitutional Court (CC) of Azerbaijan has given a positive opinion on the amendments of the Constitution offered by the national parliament; on December 24, the Court considered at its plenum a draft Referendum Act "On Amendments and Additions in the Constitution of Azerbaijan" brought by the parliament for legal expertise.

The FSB Department for Ingushetia has introduced the counterterrorist operation regime in the vicinity of Alkun village in response to the information that militants were seen there. This was reported by the spokesman of the operative staff in Ingushetia.

According to the Investigatory committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation, during the August events in South Ossetia 162 residents of this republic perished, and over 5000 were recognized as victims. The "Interfax" reports that Chairman of the ICPO Alexander Bastrykin has told about it today.

On December 18, the building of "Memorial" hosted a meeting of representatives of Georgian and Russian public held within a visit organized by the Public Chamber of Russia. The meeting discussed the ways to overcome the humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.