News

Residents of the Martuni District of Nagorno-Karabakh appealed for help to the Russian peacekeeping contingent. They requested to ensure security during the harvesting of grapes near the demarcation line. The peacekeepers have cleared the area of mines and are guarding the harvest pickers, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Russian Federation reports.

The young people detained on charges of involvement in the "Islamic State" (IS)* are from 18 to 20 years old. They took an oath of allegiance to the terrorist organization and recorded it on video, the Georgian State Security Service (SSS) has informed.

According to Ismail, a local resident, almost all the villagers came to the memorial service held at the house of Timurziev family in the village of Dolakovo. Akhmetkhan Timurziev, the father of the murdered brothers, said that no response to his appeal to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was received.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has rejected the journalist Idris Yusupov's petitions to grant him the status of a public defender at the trial of Abdulmumin Gadjiev; Kemal Tambiev's wife was also rejected. The refusal to bring public defenders into the case has no legal grounds, Mr Yusupov has pointed out.

During Nikol Pashinyan's speech, a group of journalists held a protest action in the Armenian Parliament. They demanded to cancel the restrictions on the work of media professionals in the legislature and provide more freedom to the media.

Internet users accused Dagestani MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov of disrespecting Afghan Muslims after he had refused to comment on events in Afghanistan.

In Rostov-on-Don, the Southern District Military Court found a resident of Dagestan guilty of justifying terror acts and sentenced him to a year of imprisonment in a penal colony.

The assignment of the name of Akhmat Kadyrov to Grozny airport continued the course of “akhmatization” of the republic, tacitly approved by the Kremlin, human rights defenders believe. The authorities also timed the opening of the “Grozny Mall” centre, a mosque in the village of Aldy and the allocation of apartments in the Nadterechny District to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Akhmat Kadyrov’s birth.

The Georgian State Security Service (SSS) conducted a special operation in the Pankisi Gorge and detained at least five local residents, suspected of participation in a terrorist organization.

Armenia had 3773 persons perished in the Karabakh War; other 243 ones are missing, the Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has stated.

In Azerbaijan, two employees of the centre that takes care of stray dogs have filed a lawsuit against four zoo activists, demanding to prosecute them for libel and insult. The defendants treat the lawsuit as untenable.

The parties to the Karabakh conflict are interested in attracting, apart from Russian peacemakers, those from other countries: Baku – from Turkey; Yerevan – from Western countries, in particular, from France. However, this will require consents of both parties in conflict and Moscow, experts believe.

The legislation fails to differentiate when the use of force by the police is justified, and when it is disproportionate, human rights defenders have noted in their comments on the dispersal of the action against the construction of a high-rise building. According to their version, the Armenian police needs reforms, as in modern realities it is "a club in authorities' hands."

The Makhachkala picketers have pointed to absence of journalists' protection against criminal prosecution and demanded to release political prisoners. The consideration of Abdulmumin Gadjiev's case will last until the end of 2021, the advocate has predicted.

Following the change of the Imam of the village of Agvali, who failed to satisfy the local Muslim community, the Dagestani Muftiate appointed a new chairman of the Council of Imams of the Tsumada District. The Muftiate's statement about its right to appoint Imams indicates a conflict with Agvali villagers on this issue, Ziyautdin Uvaisov, a religious figure, has suggested.

About 40 migrants from Afghanistan, who do not have refugee status in Azerbaijan, tried to hold a protest action in Baku. They demanded that the UN should pay attention to their problems. The police took the participants of the unsanctioned action out of the park.

Human rights and public organizations of Armenia claim that the policemen should be punished for beating and unjustified detention of the activists protesting against the construction of a multi-storey building. According to the Armenian Ombudsman, the police had no reason to use force.

A criminal case for assisting terrorist activities has been instituted against Alyona, a native of Rostov-on-Don, who converted to Islam. The woman left her three children to a mother of her husband, and the latter tried to take them to Grozny, but law enforcers took them off the train on the way. The children were sent to an orphanage. Such seizure of children is illegal, advocate Israil Gadadov claims.

Law enforcers claim that residents of Derbent were detained on foot, but cars of all three men ended up at a police station, relatives of the defendants claim.

On the 70th anniversary of the birth of the first President of Chechnya, Vladimir Putin named the Grozny International Airport was after Akhmat Kadyrov.