News

A Moscow court has denied the lawsuit lodged by Idrak Mirzalizade, a stand-up comedian, against the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) with a demand to declare illegal his ban to enter Russia for 14 years. In his lawsuit, Mirzalizade asked to reduce the entry ban down to a year.

The Tverskoi Court of Moscow recognized the activities of social media Facebook and Instagram as extremist and banned their operation in Russia. The WhatsApp messenger, also owned by the Meta company, was not affected by the ban.

Some of the Chechen law enforcers, whom Ramzan Kadyrov declared to be voluntary participants in the special military operation in Ukraine, agreed to the action under pressure, human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and Caucasian expert Ruslan Kutaev suggested.

During the week of March 14-20, 2022, no killed or wounded in the ongoing armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the “Caucasian Knot” based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The funeral of Junior Sergeant of Special Troops, Kurban Muradov, who died during the special military operation in Ukraine, was held in the village of Gamiyakh, Novolaksky District.

Chechen fighters of the "Rosgvardiya" (Russian National Guard) differ from ordinary law enforcers in the level of training, but it is still not enough to participate in hostilities, since the experience of fighting terrorism in the Caucasus is not applicable in the special operation in Ukraine, analysts have noted.

Echo in Southern Russia of the special military operation in Ukraine; decision of the ECtHR on the complaint filed by the “Caucasian Knot” and Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe; resumption of gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh; preparations for the presidential election in South Ossetia, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of March 14-20, 2022, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has expressed its protested to the United Nations (UN) in connection with the participation of its officials in the events held in Shusha. The visit of UN officials was also criticized by Artak Beglaryan, the Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister.

Oleg Orlov, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*, was detained in Moscow and charged with an offense under the article on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

An appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to ensure the safety of residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, up to an increase in the peacemaking contingent, was signed by 19 activists.

Elkhan Aliev, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), has been arrested for 30 days on charges of disobeying the police and petty hooliganism. Ali Kerimli, the PFPA leader, has stated that Aliev is being persecuted because of his active oppositional activities.

At the request of his employer, the court has softened the freedom restraint measure of Ramazan Dugiev, a participant in the 2019 Magas protests, Ramazan is one of the few sign language interpreters in Ingushetia; and his release from the SIZO (pre-trial prison) allows to hope for a reclassification of charges, the lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have pointed out.

Daniel Kurakin, a Volgograd activist, has gone on a protest hunger strike after being arrested under the article of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

The natural gas has begun arriving to more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh residents. Amid the cold weather, the outage lasted for 11 days due to an accident on the gas pipeline, Artak Beglaryan, the State Minister of the unrecognized republic, has announced.

The Maykop City Court has fined a local resident by 50,000 roubles after finding him guilty of posting data in social networks that discredited the Russian Armed Forces.

The residents of Batumi from among those, who have no housing, have held a protest action and demanded from the officials to transfer apartments in nine high-rise buildings into their ownership.

The Georgian opposition has offered to listen to the speech of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, at a parliamentary session, but the ruling "Georgian Dream-Democratic Movement" Party refused to consider this offer. Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker, has motivated the refusal by asserting fact that the opposition wants to destabilize the situation in the country.

Alipat Sultanbegova, who was recently set free after her 20-day arrest for participating in an action against the special operation in Ukraine, has been detained again. This time, for her posts in social networks, one of which, as law enforcers assert, discredits the Russian Armed Forces, and the other incites hatred towards law enforcers.

Workers have finalized the repair of the section of the Shushi-Zariflu gas pipeline located in the territory controlled by Azerbaijan; the gas began arriving at the receiving station of the gas supplying organization of Nagorno-Karabakh, the authorities of the unrecognized republic have informed.

After a Krasnodar citizen spat on the letter Z depicted on the banner, law enforcers accused the man of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. The detainee is a 32-year-old resident of Krasnodar.