News

Chechnya residents think that the decision adopted by the State Duma to postpone introduction of the institute of juries by three years in the Republic is an infringement of their rights.

Several tens of ethnic Avar families who fled last year from the village of Borozdinovskaya of the Shelkovskoj District of Chechnya after a punitive clean-up ("zachistka") held there, as a result of which one person was killed and 11 others disappeared, are still living in inhuman conditions near the administrative border of Chechnya and Dagestan.

Turkey has frozen military ties with France, the CNN-Turk TV Company has broadcast tonight with a reference to the commander-in-chief of the Turkish ground troops.

Andronik Margaryan, Prime Minister of Armenia, has stated today to journalists that Armenia counts on a thorough and objective investigation of the Armenian teenager's murder.

Today, on November 15, it is 40 days after Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta," who became known for her reports from Chechnya, was shot dead in Moscow.

After dissolving the Petrozavodsk City Council, head of Karelia Sergey Katanandov dismissed a number of high-ranked bureaucrats of the Republic's government. Alexander Smirnov, Mr. Katanandov's press secretary explained that "the tough personnel decisions were made by Karelian leader during his interim summing up the measures intended tom overcome the crisis situation in Kondopoga."

The prosecutor's office of Karelia has exhibited charge to the second instigator of the fight in Kondopoga that provoked ethnic-motivated mass riots in this town early this September.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB employee, now residing in Great Britain, some time ago was interrogated by a Russian investigator on the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the "Moskovskiy Komsomolets" (MK) reports.

The Leninskiy District Court of Vladikavkaz has recognized to be illegal the conclusions of the so-called situational examination on the main case on Beslan terror act.

On November 8, the fourth round of regular Russia-EU consultations on human rights was held in Brussels. Russia was represented by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

In Moscow, they go on with mass arrests and deportations of Georgian natives. This was the topic of the press conference "'Road to Calvary' of Georgian in Moscow Continues" held today in the Independent Press Centre.

Georgia has compared Moscow's actions towards Georgians with persecutions of Jews in Germany in 1930s, the Reuters reports.

The authorities of Chechnya assert that the Human Rights Watch International Organization, which published yesterday a large-scale report on tortures in Chechnya, has essentially exaggerated the scale of the problem.

Today, the court of the Korelian town of Kondopoga has sent back to the prosecutor's office the case against one of the instigators of the mass fight that led to the murder of two locals.

The Leninskiy District Court of the city of Vladikavkaz has recognized the so-called situational examination on Beslan act of terror to be illegal.

The Council of Europe regards the referendum on South Ossetia independence from Georgia to be "excessive, useless and unfair."

Bella Plieva, head of the Central Electoral Commission of South Ossetia, informed that 96% of voters have cast their ballots for Eduard Kokoity, incumbent president of South Ossetia, and so far, ballot papers from 64 out of 78 constituencies, that is about 80% of the total, have been processed.

The International Organization Human Rights Watch has disseminated a report on tortures in Chechnya.

Mr. Litvinenko asserts that on November 1, in a restaurant in the Piccadilly Circle, Mr. Scaramella gave him a certain document: "I understood from the text that the people mentioned therein could have actually organized Anna Politkovskaya's murder."

On December 18, the Presnya Court of Moscow will consider on the merits the claim lodged by 41 residents of the Chechen Borozdinovskaya village to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on collection of 126 million Russian roubles.