News

Scandals with Ramzan Kadyrov, continuation of the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, official data on the natives of Southern Russia perished in Ukraine, struggle of Azerbaijani oppositionists, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 30-February 5, 2023, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

Oleg Denisov and Irina Kuznetsova from Rostov-on-Don were sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for setting fire to a car with symbols of the special military operation in Ukraine.

A resident of Dagestan did not succeed in seeking in court a removal from the police preventive registration list under the category of “extremist”. The court based its decision on the police’s assertion that no such police preventive registration lists were run.

The idea to supplement the position of the leader of Chechnya with the title of “father of the country” is inappropriate and causes irony with its excessive pathos, Telegram users point out.

Partial access to the case file violates the right of Ingush opposition leaders to defence and is recognized as a legal basis for annulment of the decision, advocate Magomed Bekov states.

The term of “Mekhkan Da”, literally translated from the Chechen language as “father of the people,” was not earlier used in the Chechen society. An attempt to introduce it is connected with the Ramzan Kadyrov’s leadership style, which inherits the Stalinist model, analysts point out.

Four Jehovah’s Witnesses* who received suspended sentences withdrew their appeals against the verdict, and it came into force, the Supreme Court of Dagestan reported.

A court in Sochi has fined a local resident who, the day before, posted a translation of a pro-Ukrainian slogan into the Korean language as her WhatsApp status.

The decision of Leyla Gireeva to return to her family in Ingushetia was caused by the severe stress that the girl faced. Fear of the uncertainty in the future and longing for relatives used to encourage other fugitives to return home, human rights defenders have pointed out.

A court in Grozny has extended the arrest of Zarema Musaeva until May 12, 2923, human rights defenders have informed.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has posted a video with the mass participation of children speaking out in defence of the Koran in response to the actions with the burning of this book held in Denmark and Sweden.

Five girls-students of the Novocherkassk Medical College (NMC), including the natives of Dagestan and Chechnya, earlier expelled for wearing hijabs, can resume their studies, their advocate has informed.

A draft law proposing to supplement the position of the leader of Chechnya with the title “Mekhkan Da” has been published on the official website of the republic’s parliament.

The decision of the court, which refused to recognize a wife of Salman Tepsurkaev as a victim in the case on his kidnapping, was cancelled by the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya. The Court of Appeal pointed to significant violations of the law by the first instance court.

The arrest of bank accounts of the Krasnodar activist Yana Antonova and her mother has been extended until May. The court ruling named the pensioner as an employee of an extremist organization, the activist herself has informed.

Chechen authorities are unable to eradicate the practice of blood feud; this custom has adapted itself to the Sharia Law and remains relevant, Oyub Titiev, a human rights defender, and Akhmet Yarlykapov, a Caucasian scholar, believe. 

The call of Salakh Mezhiev, the Mufti of Chechnya, not to prohibit mothers from seeing their children in the event of a divorce, if authorities and the society stay inactive, will hardly affect men in the republics of Northern Caucasus, female human rights defenders have noted.

Leyla Gireeva, an 18-year-old resident of Nazran, who ran away from home, has returned to her family and wants to settle her conflict with family members. The girl is under the recognizance not to leave, human rights defenders have informed.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recognized the disruption of meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses* by law enforcers in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Rostov Region as a violation of the right to freedom of religion and awarded compensation to the complainants in the amount of 7500 euros.

Today, in Volgograd, busts of Joseph Stalin and Soviet Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky have been installed on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.