News

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has failed to find Russia responsible for the death of Natalia Estemirova due to political reasons, human rights defenders assert.

The fires that onset on August 29 near the villages of the Gegarkunik Region on the border with Azerbaijan are spreading and threatening dwelling settlements; it is difficult to extinguish them due to the terrain relief and weather conditions; and residents of Armenian villages are afraid of getting under shelling, Arman Tatoyan, the Armenian Ombudsperson, has stated.

Parents of children from the village of Nichras, Tabasaran District of Dagestan, have refused to send their children to a new school, because it has no water and sewage system. The prosecutor's office has announced the start of a check.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), after finding the absence of any efficient inquiry into the murder of Natalia Estemirova, has awarded her sister compensation for moral harm in the amount of 20,000 euros. Human rights defenders have expressed regret that the ECtHR failed to recognize Russia responsible for Estemirova's death.

Niyameddin Aslanzade has served the administrative arrest imposed on him after a complaint from the Ombudsman Office and intends to appeal against the court’s decision.

Today, the cassation court has dismissed an appeal against the verdict to Giorgi Guev, a resident of North Ossetia, who was sentenced to six years of imprisonment on the charge of financing terrorism.

When explaining his refusal to accept the claim of Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, the head of the NGO “Positive Changes” and the director of the “Human Capital Consulting” LLC, a judge has referred to the fact that the President of Azerbaijan, due to discrepancies in the claim itself, cannot act as a defendant. The activist has appealed to court again.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has noted that the Russian authorities provided it with an incomplete copy of the case file on the murder of human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, but there is reason to doubt the effectiveness of the investigation into the case on the murder. The ECtHR requested Russia to find and punish the persons guilty of the murder.

In Chechnya, the crime rate indicators are beneficial for law enforcers to demonstrate their work, but they will not affect the outcome of the presidential election, as this outcome is predefined, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have suggested.

Since the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, a total of 3890 residents of Azerbaijan, including 719 civilians, have gone missing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has informed.

Sofo Djaparidze, a member of the "United National Movement" (UNM) Party, has called on the authorities to amnesty those convicted of petty crimes in order to stop the spread of COVID-19 in prisons.

In Stepanakert, almost 900 buildings damaged by shelling during the autumn war have been repaired; works are also underway in the Askeran, Martakert and Martuni Districts, the Ministry of Urban Development of Nagorno-Karabakh has informed.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will demand from Russia to investigate the murder of the human rights defender, Natalia Estemirova, committed in Chechnya, but Russian authorities will take no concrete steps for this, the rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

A State Duma MP has treated the ban imposed on Idrak Mirzalizade to visit Russia for a joke as excessive; and the comedian's colleagues treat the pressure on him as a new level of repressions in Russia.

Damage and casualties as a result of heavy rains in Dagestan; detention of Pankisi Gorge residents during a special operation; adoption of the Armenian government’s programme amid the boycott of the opposition, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of August 23-29, 2021, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

Today, in Makhachkala, journalist Idris Yusupov and Magdi Kamalov, a founder of the newspaper "Chernovik" (Draft), have held solo pickets with the demand to release Abdulmumin Gadjiev. Cases of pressure on the media and criminal prosecution of journalists have become a “federal trend,” emphasizes Magomed Magomedov, the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Chernovik”.

At a meeting with war veterans in Volgograd, Sergey Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that attempts to portray Joseph Stalin as the main villain of his era are aimed at weakening Russia politically.

Today, the defence has challenged the verdict to Said-Mukhammad Djumaev, who was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for a fight with law enforcers. The verdict became the toughest since the January protests in support of oppositionist Alexei Navalny in Moscow.

Relatives of three young people kidnapped in Chechnya during the second Chechen military campaign claim they are still not aware of their fate. According to various sources, from 4000 to 7700 people are listed as missing in the republic, reports the “Legal Initiative”* in its material, timed to coincide with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance.

Idrak Mirzalizade, an ethnic Talysh, who served ten days of administrative arrest for a joke about xenophobia, has been recognized as an undesirable person in Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation reports today.