News

At night of March 12, several villages of Kodor Gorge were bombarded by Russian helicopters, Paul Felgengauer, an independent military observer, asserts. The expert thinks that Abkhazia and Georgia have actually no aircrafts capable to fly in darkness.

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had covered events in Chechnya and was killed in Moscow last October, has been posthumously awarded with UNESCO Prize for freedom of press.

In London, a meeting took place of entrepreneur Boris Berezovskiy with representatives of law enforcement bodies of Russia and Great Britain, where Mr. Berezovskiy gave evidence to Russian investigators on the murder case of Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian FSB (Federal Security Bureau) officer.

Yesterday, the international organization Human Rights Watch published a report entitled "Guantanamo Stigma," dealing with the fate of former Guantanamo prisoners, among them - Rasul Kudaev, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria.

At the process dealing with accusation of "OMON" (Special Militia) fighters of application of violence in the children's summer camp "Druzhba" (Friendship) in Sochi (Krasnodar Territory), the victims' party has lodged a petition on elimination of violations in the indictment.

Russia is calling Tbilisi to give up its plans of legitimizing the alternative government in South Ossetia and to take a constructive stand concerning development of the negotiation process on Georgian-Ossetian settlement.

Krasnodar Territory has introduced the quarantine regime because of avian (bird) flue.

Yesterday, the PACE Monitoring Committee held a discussion of Azerbaijan's liabilities before this international body.

"After all the years of out studies of torture cases, we now have got an idea why they exist in Russia. However, we have no answer to the question how often tortures are applied to people," with these words Igor Kalyapin, chairman of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional public organization "Committee against Tortures," started his press conference in Moscow.

Last night, in the centre of Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, Radik Bappinaev, member of jama'at "Yarmuk," who was in international search from spring 2005, was killed in the course of a clash with militia patrol.

On February 28, the Committee against Tortures held a joint sitting with the power structures of the Chechen parliament.

Additional militia forced are deployed in the district centre of Sergokala of the Sergokalinskiy District with the aim to prevent possible mass disorders that may be organized by supporters of Ali Kadiev, head of Municipal Formation (MF) "The Sergokalinskiy District," and Gasan Gasanov, head of MF "The Sergokala Settlement."

Local observers find the statement disseminated by a number of mass media on behalf of former fighters of the "Gorets" FSB's special detachment (where Movladi Baisarov, who was killed several months ago in Moscow, was the commander) on their complicacy in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya to be a pure disinformation.

The Russian investigators engaged in inquiry of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, former FSB officer, have arrived to London, where they expect to interrogate more than a hundred persons including businessman Boris Berezovskiy who resides there.

A press service employee of the European Court for Human Rights has informed that the consideration of the Georgia's claim against Russia can take a couple of months.

On Tuesday, the Kondopoga City Court announced its verdict on the case of beating the workers of the "Chaika" restaurant, after which pogroms had burst out in the city against the natives from the Caucasus.

On Tuesday, mass media made public a new version of Anna Politkovskaya's death.

The family of Uruskhan Zyazikov, 72, kidnapped in Ingushetia, who is a relative of Ingush president Murat Zyazikov, has announced a reward for any information about his whereabouts.

Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Chechen ombudsman, has made a statement today that the inactivity of military courts is the cause of repeated cases of execution by militaries of peaceful residents of Chechnya.

The situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone continues to aggravate.