News

Over 100 Tuapse residents were not able to vote in the elections of the Russian president and regional governor on March 14 as their names were not put on the lists of precinct election commissions.

By efforts of Armenian communities, one educational institution opened in each of the three towns: Nizhniy Tagil, Krimsk, and Goryachiy Klyuch, reported the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia.

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov's security service officers stationed in the Achkhoy-Martan district of Chechnya are maintained at the expense of district budget employees, reports the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship.

Chechnya's State Council has consented to confirmation of Sergey Abramov as prime minister.

Proceeding from the fact that "Ponomarev, as the organizer, was not given permission to hold the meeting," Judge Oksana Suleymanova found him guilty of breaking the established order of arranging the meeting and imposed a penalty of 1,000 rubles on him as a punishment.

Chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva does not agree with the authorities' plan to resettle people from the last two tent camps for Chechen refugees in Ingushetia.

"He must leave or we will clear him off," Guram Saladze, an activist of the Our Adjaria coalition, declared.

The agreement on this meeting was reached during the talks in Batumi between chairman of the Georgian parliament Nino Burdjanadze and the Adjarian leader.

The workshop is conducted within the framework of the program of the European Commission and the Council of Europe. It is arranged by the Judicial Training Center with the assistance of the Media Division of the Council of Europe Directorate General of Human Rights.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, announced it at a press conference, summarizing results of his visit to Baku.

The application for the holding of the action on March 18 filled by the organizers of the picket, who have been protesting against the war in Chechnya for already four years, was rejected almost for the first time.

On March 12, the Sabailsky Court pronounced judgment on the suit brought by the former director of school No 249, Mirfaig Mirgeidarli, against the Azadlig newspaper and human rights defender Saida Godjamanli.

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burdjanadze and State Security Minister Zurab Adeishvili arrived in Batumi to conduct negotiations with Adjaria's leader Aslan Abashidze.

Armed supporters of Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze did not let Georgian Minister of Education Khakha Lomaia through the Choloki post, which is at the autonomy's administrative border. The minister's trip was concerned with the information that studies were suspended at local schools.

Rebels encircled a group of federal forces in the mountains of the Itum-Kali district, Chechnya. "As the Russian soldiers saw the despair of the situation, they decided to surrender," reported Chechen separatists' website.

Names of 7,000 victims appeared in central newspapers in Armenian and Russian.

Nikolay Khramov thinks the authorities are trying to limit citizens' constitutional right to freedom of assembly, "basing on indistinct by-laws, which have become old, and their own high-handedness."

The speaker of the Georgian parliament told reporters that she was going to discuss with Abashidze a way out of the crisis situation that had arisen in relations between Tbilisi and Batumi.

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov pointed out that the efforts of the Moscow Mayor in the interests of establishing a dialogue between Tbilisi and Batumi were supported by the Russian leadership.

Sergey Abramov, 32, an official of the Russian Accounts Chamber has been appointed to replace Anatoly Popov.