News

Torture is a grave crime; and the court ruling to sentence a law enforcer from the Krasnodar Territory (also known as Kuban by the name of the main river) to a fine of 50,000 roubles for beating up Andrei Popov is excessively lenient, human rights defenders have noted.

The Volgograd residents, whose personal data were disclosed on air of the "Volgograd-1" TV channel, intend to file complaints with law enforcement bodies.

A court in the Krasnodar Territory has fined Evgeny Volkov, a policeman, by 50,000 roubles under the case of torturing Andrei Popov, who was detained on suspicion of theft.

Alyona Agafonova, a blogger from Samara, accused of desecrating a symbol of military glory because of her video filmed near the monument "The Motherland is Calling!" has been left in custody until June 19.

A court in Moscow arrested Alisher Kasimov, a native of Kyrgyzstan, on the charge of involvement in organizing the terror act at the Crocus City Hall.

In Tatarstan, the court of appeal upheld the decision to arrest Askhabali Alibekov, a native of Dagestan, suspected of using violence against a policeman.

In Russia, the status of victims of terror acts should be legislated and state assistance should be guaranteed to them, human rights defenders claim after the terror act at the Crocus City Hall. According to the human rights defenders, the authorities still do not provide full-scale assistance to the victims of the terror act in Beslan and the militant attack on Nalchik.

A report on the awarding of “Akhmat” fighters for the detention of the suspects accused of committing the terror act at the Crocus City Hall looks like an attempt to artificially increase the importance of the Chechen military unit. That has been noted by military experts interviewed.

In Volgograd, a local TV channel has disclosed the names of people who brought flowers to the monument to the victims of political repressions in memory of Alexei Navalny, calling them potential “saboteurs.”

Igor Nagavkin, a Volgograd human rights defender, has asked the court to pay attention to contradictions in witnesses' testimonies about the time of the incident in the cell. The judge refused to add his motion to the case files.

Officials cannot define behaviour norms for the Chechen society, since they are formed by the society itself; and the search for social network users, whose actions and statements contradict the Chechens' mentality, will lead to mass repressions with forced apologies, analysts are sure.

Teenagers from different country regions, including from Southern Russia, are massively receiving offers in instant messengers from unknown persons to commit terror acts, Ekaterina Mizulina, the director of the Safe Internet League, has reported.

After the terror act at the Crocus City Hall, in Northern Caucasus, there is a risk of intensification of militants of the IS*, although no terror acts on civilians have not been observed there since 2018. This was noted by Sergey Goncharov, a veteran of special services, and Andrei Koshkin, a military expert.

Cities of the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD) have hosted actions in memory of the victims of the terror act at the Crocus City Hall, involving thousands of people.

More people perished in the terror act at the Crocus City Hall than in the one committed in 2002 at the Dubrovka Theatre Centre; it follows from the official data on the death toll.

Human rights defender Igor Nagavkin has stopped his hunger strike, reports a spokesperson for the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Leninsk.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensations to a Magas protester in March 2019, and to seven activists from the Krasnodar Territory.

Villages of discord, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, mourning in the Caucasus for those killed in Moscow, NATO Secretary General’s visit to Southern Caucasus, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of March 18-24, 2024, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

Statements about the responsibility of the “ISIS-Khorasan”* for the terror act committed at the Crocus City Hall in the Moscow Region seem to be proved by the FSB report released two weeks before the above-mentioned terror act concerning the prevention of an attack on a Moscow synagogue that was being prepared by militants of the same armed grouping.

Vladimir Atamanchuk, a Sochi activist, has sent an application to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), in which he accused the head of the Lazarevskoye ROVD (District Interior Division), who had ordered to detain him, of exceeding his official duties.