News

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists would not visit Adjara; and the owners of small hotels suffer losses and cannot pay off their loans, entrepreneurs in the city of Kobuleti have complained, insisting that authorities should help hoteliers in solving their problems with banks.

Aleksandra Katsaeva, a prosecution witness in a case against journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev, said that she was engaged in fundraising on her bank cards to help orphans, but did not track the spending of the raised money. The witness also said she never spoke with any of the three defendants.

A court dismissed a complaint filed by oppositionist Alizamin Salaev about torture in a penal colony. Alizamin Salaev, who went on a hunger strike in protest against torture, was beaten for refusing to participate in discrediting the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, his colleague party member suggested.

Armenia is systematically violating the "International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination", Azerbaijan has claimed in a lawsuit lodged to the International Court of Justice, asking to bring the neighbouring state to justice.

Near the city of Fizuli, Karabakh rescuers have found the remains of an Armenian military serviceman, thus bringing the number of casualties' bodies and remains found in the Karabakh conflict zone up to 1669.

A video has been posted, in which the brothers of the emigrant, Akhmed Zakaev, living in Chechnya, insult him and threaten him with execution.

Several groups of Circassian students from Syria have arrived in Russia; they will study at universities in Krasnodar and Nalchik. Students study both for fee and at the expense of the Russian state budget; through the Fund for Assistance to Repatriates, they receive humanitarian and financial support.

Relatives of Akhmed Zakaev, who lives in Great Britain, will be forced to publicly condemn him if he does not stop criticizing the Chechen authorities, claims Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen parliament. The threat was voiced against the background of the detention of Akhmed Zakaev’s relatives in the Urus-Martan District.

Ibragim Toleshov has been sentenced to two years in prison for sending money to a member of a terrorist grouping in Syria, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has reported.

The Tskhinvali City Court has demanded from the Prosecutor's Office (PO) to add information in the case of Inal Djabiev's death.

The US Congress has passed an amendment demanding an immediate release of all Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians kept by Azerbaijan, as well as conducting an inquiry into the use of American technologies in Turkish drones that were used during the 2020 escalation of the Karabakh conflict.

Magdi, a brother of Khadjimurad Kamalov, the founder of the Dagestani "Chernovik" (Draft) weekly, who was killed in March 2018, had earlier declared the innocence of the defendants, and now has confirmed his position at the court session. He has stated that there was no conflict of his brother with Shamil Isaev, a former republic's Vice-Premier, who was treated as the customer of the murder.

Residents of the Tagavard-Kaler village in Nagorno-Karabakh have demanded to set up posts of Russian peacemakers in the village and arm the men in order to ensure villagers' safety.

The Baku Court of Grave Crimes has rejected all the defence's motions put forward in favour of Niyameddin Akhmedov, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA). The state prosecutor has asked the court to sentence him to 15 years in prison.

While commenting on the Freedom House’s Internet freedom rating, experts in the field of media have claimed that Azerbaijan restricts access to a number of websites, and social media users are persecuted for criticizing the authorities,.

Tractor driver Mamed Mardanov was killed while ploughing a land plot in the Azerbaijani border village of Bala Djafarli in the Gazakh District.

The investigation into a case against Akhmed Pogorov, the co-chair of the World Congress of the Ingush People, has been unjustifiably prolonged, and the arguments presented by investigators in favour of the activist’s arrest are not grounded, advocate Magomed Gagiev claims. The court extended the arrest of Akhmed Pogorov for three months.

The Rostov-on-Don Military Court has sentenced Shamil Abdulmedjidov, a resident of Dagestan, to 12 years in a high security colony, having found him guilty of taking the oath to the "Islamic State" (IS)*. Abdulmedjidov refused to plead guilty.

The jury of the "Kinotavr" Film Festival recognized the film about election fraud "Almost Spring" directed by Nastya Korkiya as the winner in the nomination "For Purity and Accuracy". The story of a teacher who threw ballots into the ballot box is accurately describing the psychology of school teachers, whose work is equated to duties of civil servants, said Victor Matizen, a film critic.

In the overwhelming majority of regions of the Southern Federal District (SFD) of Russia, candidates from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party have won the elections to the State Duma in single-mandate constituencies, with the exception of Adygea, where the self-nominated candidate Vladislav Reznik has won.