News

Today, the Ulman's case trial went on in Rostov-on-Don. Eight prosecution witnesses - defendants' colleagues who took part in the special operation to capture Hattab in January 2002 - were summoned to the court.

Gegam Khalatyan, vice-president of the Union of Armenians of Russia, has told in his interview to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that throughout the latest fifteen years, the climate of extreme intolerance to Caucasus natives has been planted in Russia, and what happens today - is the result of this policy.

The Presnenskiy Court of Moscow has refused to bring into court as co-claimants 54 more persons under the suit on compensation of moral damage to residents of Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya lodged against the Ministry of Defence.

A Commission of the Chechen Parliament has begun its work to calculate the whole damage caused to the Republic starting from 1994 - opening of the operation to set up the constitutional order.

Today, Ismail Bostanov, rector of the Islamic Institute and deputy chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of the Moslems of Karachayevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol Territory, has been taken to the city hospital of Cherkessk with firearm and incised wounds.

"Since the law on migration adopted in Russia and the government's decision on this issue could have created problems for the Azerbaijanis who live in this country, the order of the president of Azerbaijan has formed a state commission that has already started its work," Nazim Ibragimov, chairman of the state committee for work with Azerbaijanis living abroad, told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

The start of proceedings of the case on dispersal of Anna Politkovskaya's memorial picket, which had been appointed for 4 p.m. yesterday, December 15, at the Nazran District Court of the Republic of Ingushetia, did not come about again. Magomed Mutsolgov, claimant's representative and chairman of the "Mashr" Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization (ANO), informed the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" about the fact.

Alexander Litvinenko was murdered because he possessed information on a certain powerful Kremlin figure, his former partner told the BBC in an interview.

A protest action named "March of objectors" has been launched in the Triumphal Square of Moscow by the opposition coalition "The Other Russia."

Senator Oleg Panteleev, member of the federal parliamentary commission on Beslan, has reported on Friday that the commission's report will be presented to parliament in the 20s of December this year.

Forced migrants from Chechnya and other regions of North Caucasus face much more problems in Russia than resettlers from CIS countries. Alla Yakunina, chair of the "Compatriots" Russian Foundation for helping refugees, told about it to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

On Thursday December 14, Wanner Christoph, journalist of the Deutsche Welle TV Company, was brought to militia of Grozny, capital of Chechnya.

In Rostov-on-Don, at the North-Caucasian Military Court, three witnesses on the prosecution part were interrogated on Friday on "Ulman's case."

Heidi Hautala, leader of the Green faction in parliament of Finland, told in her exclusive interview to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that she would join the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), which has its branches in Nizhniy Novgorod and Chechnya.

On December 13, representatives of the "Civil Assistance" NGO and Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship made a joint visit to the village of Staroschedrinskaya of the Shelkovskoj District of the Chechen Republic.

Alexander Belov, leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (MAII) was summoned to Petrozavodsk for interrogation.

About thirty children-residents of Staroschedrinskaya village of the Shelkovskoj District of Chechnya have been taken ill again with an unknown disease, officially treated as massive post-war mental disorder.

On December 13, Vakhid Mustafaev, president of the ANS TV Company, stated while talking to journalists that the Company people believed in a fair decision to be taken on the future of the ANS.

Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta," was posthumously awarded a special Diploma of the Jury of Andrei Sakharov's Prize "For the Life Sacrificed to Journalism."

Upon returning from London, two citizens of Lithuania underwent medical examination, which showed that they were "contaminated with polonium," Vigaudas Ushatskas, Ambassador of Lithuania to Great Britain.