News

The residents of the Kasakh community, who got lost and ended up in the territory controlled by Azerbaijan, have returned home with the assistance of Russian border guards.

More than half of the electorate have taken part in the voting, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has reported. However, in Nalchik, observers claimed a low voter turnout at their polling stations.

The data of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) on the number of voters at a number of polling stations in Sochi is from 1.5 to 2 times higher than the figures indicated in the protocols, observers assert.

In Makhachkala, an unidentified man has attacked Ibragim Nazhmudinov, a member of the election commission with an advisory vote from the "Yabloko" Party, by accusing him of obstructing the work of the election commission. The police became interested in the incident.

In the evening of September 17, unidentified persons have beaten up Alexei Glimeido, an observer for the candidate for an MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), after he left the territory of the Territorial Election Commission (TEC). Doctors recorded minor injuries; and the activist sent a complaint to the police.

In Chechnya, officials, teachers and businessmen are placing posts in social networks calling voters to go to the polls, residents of the region informed.

A total of 144 Azerbaijanis have left the "Ogonyok" camp located in the Kaitag District of Dagestan, the regional branch of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) has reported. Apart from the camp tenants, about 500 other citizens are waiting for crossing the Russian-Azerbaijani border in Dagestan, a human rights defender asserts.

On the first day of voting, voters mostly came to polling stations in Sochi with invitations from enterprises; they put their marks in ballot papers, made photos of them and sent somewhere; members of precinct election commissions (PECs) and observers have noted, believing that in this way, authorities are making use of their administrative resources to promote the "right" candidates.

On September 17, about 400 residents of Donbass have received Russian passports; immediately after that, they were taken by buses to polling stations in the Rostov Region.

Rostislav Scherbakov, a proxy of a candidate for an MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), has filed two complaints about violations during the voting in the city of Anapa and was attacked at the exit from the polling station.

Three proxies of a candidate for a State Duma MP have claimed that some unidentified persons had punctured tires of their cars left near polling stations. One of them was attacked at the polling station when he tried to record a violation.

Members of election commissions interfere with the checking of voters’ documents and preventing voting at places of residence, a coordinator of the “Observers of Dagestan” movement reports.

Mass transportation of voters to polling stations and violations in filling out documents were registered at polling stations in Kuban, observers reported.

Soldier Vruir Shakhramanyan was wounded in a shelling attack from the Azerbaijani side, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh reported.

Two girls who lived with their father after the divorce of their parents were taken to a hospital with signs of beatings, and a criminal case was instituted on torture of minors, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reported.

Armenia has asked the UN International Court of Justice to oblige Azerbaijan to stop torture and killings of Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and compensate for human rights violations.

The Volgograd Regional Court has upheld the ruling to fine Galina Tikhenko, a participant in actions in defence of the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain by 150,000 roubles. The defence intends now to turn to the cassation court.

The clergy's participation in campaigning for Ramzan Kadyrov is a direct violation of the Russian federal law, but it is a long-standing and widespread practice in Chechnya, Roman Udot, a co-chairman of the All-Russian Public Movement for the Protection of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Vote)*, and Ruslan Kutaev, President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, have stated.

On September 16, at a rally in protest against mass surveillance and wiretapping held near the building of the Georgian State Security Service (SSS) in Tbilisi, activists of the "Girchi-More Freedom" Party crashed a Škoda Octavia car, treating it as a symbol of this special service. The police detained two protesters.

Under the threat of dismissal, teachers in Chechnya were forced to participate in pre-election rallies and were obliged to come to the polls, local residents have complained.