News

The transport corridor connecting Baku with Nakhichevan is beneficial not only for Azerbaijan, it will also improve Armenia's communication with Iran and Russia, the economists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

On December 13, the Documentary Film Centre in Moscow will screen the film "This Happens Here" about the practice of female genital mutilation in Northern Caucasus. The authors of the film are journalists Svetlana Anokhina and Vladimir Sevrinovsky. This will be the first screening of the film in a movie theatre, Oksana Serbinova, the creative producer of the film, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

By means of military conflicts on the border, Azerbaijan is trying to increase pressure on Yerevan, the Armenian analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe. The escalation on the eve of the meeting at the Eastern Partnership summit is beneficial to Armenia, as it can change the agenda of the meeting, the Azerbaijani political observer believes.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has criticized the film director, Alexander Sokurov, for his proposal to President Vladimir Putin to allow some regions of Northern Caucasus to separate from Russia, and urged to check his proposal for extremism.

Ronald Airapetyan, an activist, has explained his flight from the Krasnodar Territory to the Netherlands by the earlier committed kidnapping and the threats he had received because of his oppositional activities.

On December 10, the administration of the municipality of the city of Korfez in the Turkish Province of Kocaeli solemnly opened a park named after the first president of Ichkeria, Djokhar Dudaev. The official ceremony was attended by about three hundred members of the North-Caucasian Diaspora and Caucasian public organizations; delegates of the Chechen Diasporas in Europe were among the visitors, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported.

The court has sentenced Alikhan Adjamatov, a native of Dagestan, accused of assisting in terrorist activities, to 17 years in prison. This is too severe, given that Adjamatov's guilt has not been proved, his advocates assert.

Khadizhat Kadyrova, the 21-year-old Ramzan Kadyrov's daughter, the head of the Department of Preschool Education of Grozny, was awarded the medal "For Merits to the Chechen Republic".

The Elista City Court has fined Batyr Boromangnaev, the chairman of the Kalmyk branch of the "Yabloko" Party, by 30,000 roubles for his post in social networks about "Putin's Russia". The court found that the oppositionist's statements are offending the honour and dignity of the Russian president. Boromangnaev intends to appeal against this decision.

On the 35th day of his hunger strike, Salekh Rustamov stopped believing in the results of the protest action, but still intends to continue it, his advocate reports.

During the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, has noted that cases on torture of convicts and persons under investigation in Russia should be considered by an international tribunal.

One Armenian military was killed and another was wounded as a result of a shootout at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia reports today.

The Armenian side accumulated additional forces near the state border and shelled the positions of Azerbaijani troops in the Kelbadjar District, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reported. Its Armenian counterpart claims to have repulsed an attack of Azerbaijani soldiers.

Five militaries, handed over to Armenia after the armed clashes at the border with Azerbaijan, were accused of violating the rules of combat duty. Human rights defender Arthur Sakunts says it is unacceptable to open criminal proceedings against Armenian soldiers captured by Azerbaijan.

A statement of Vladimir Putin on the need to consider the case of the “Memorial”* without bias came amid the accusations against human rights defenders of protecting banned organizations and the inclusion of Nazi criminals in the list of victims of political repression. The inclusion of a person on the list of political prisoners does not mean sharing his or her views, and the erroneous classification of Nazi criminals as victims of repression occurred due to the closed nature of the archives of the special services, human rights defenders argue.

Giorgi Lortkipanidze, a former Deputy Interior Minister, had developed for Mikhail Saakashvili a plan for crossing the Georgian border and provided him with his car, in which the politician arrived at the Black Sea port, the Georgia's General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) has suggested.

Anastasia Kashkina, a journalist from the "Sota" online edition, had to emigrate to Georgia due to threats and surveillance after her investigative publication about a robbery and attempted murder this February of an entrepreneur and his friend in Dagestan.

Vladimir Putin said that he had requested additional information on the liquidation case of the "Memorial"*, and expressed hope for the objectivity of the trial, but has reproached the human rights organization for "demonstrative violations."

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), law enforcers have detained Insa Lander, a blogger. According to her acquaintances, the court has placed the girl under house arrest on suspicion of aiding terrorist activities.

The Moscow City Court (MCC) has rejected the motion of the defence of Idrak Mirzalizade, which had challenged the ban on his entry to Russia.