News

At the protest action, residents of the Georgian village of Toriya, which is predominantly populated by Armenians, demanded to release their three fellow villagers detained after the conflict with Azerbaijanis over a place for grazing.

One of the two men killed during the counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in Ingushetia on August 6 turned out to be Khusen Gadamauri, a native of Chechnya, who was extradited from Germany in 2017 under Russia's guarantees, sources have reported. Human rights defenders assert that asylum requests in Europe, especially submitted by North-Caucasians, are considered superficially.

The court extended the arrest of Isropil Nalgiev, accused of attacking a law enforcer during a rally in Magas on March 26, 2019, by two months. The activist denies the prosecution's version of political motives of his attack.

Gurgen Alaverdyan, the captured Armenian officer, faces criminal prosecution, but Azerbaijan can exchange him and two other convicted Armenian military servicemen for the Azerbaijani citizens kept in jails in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Armenia. This is the opinion of Avaz Gasanov, the head of the Society for Humanitarian Studies, and Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Officers".

While commenting on the event dedicated to the anniversary of the Akhmat Kadyrov's birthday, residents of Chechnya and social network users have claimed that in the republic, officials violate the Islam prohibition of erecting statues. Some Islamic scholars consider the above mentioned prohibition not applicable if the monument does not imply any religious content, Caucasus experts explain.

In Volgograd, the NGO "Mothers of Beslan" presented an exhibition of photographs and paintings about the seizure of hostages by terrorists in a Beslan school. The Beslan tragedy still terrifies people even 16 years later, visitors of the exhibition note.

The positions of the Azerbaijani troops, including in villages on the border with Armenia, were shelled 28 times over 24 hours, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reported.

The FSB reported about the detention of a man suspected in organizing the recruitment of residents of Dagestan and other regions into the "Islamic State", a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court. According to the FSB, the detainee is also suspected of financing militants.

During the week of August 17-23, 2020, at least seven people fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus: five perished and two were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from open sources.

The film "Death/Survival Is Impossible", dedicated to the South-Ossetian-Georgian armed conflict has been declared the winner of the International Patriotic Film Festival in the nomination of "The Best Full-Length Film".

A clash with saboteurs occurred in the Karabakh conflict zone; an Armenian officer was taken in captivity, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported. In its turn, the Armenian MoD has objected stating that Gurgen Alaverdyan is not a saboteur; he just got lost due to bad weather.

Spread of the coronavirus infection in the Caucasus; two CTOs in Ingushetia; actions in support of Alexei Navalny; attack on an MP in Kalmykia; new protests of Armenian residents against gold mining at Amulsar field, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of August 17-23, 2020, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Doctors found no coronavirus in 26 children-natives from Northern Caucasus evacuated from Syria. All the children were transferred to their relatives in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Karachay-Cherkessia, the children's ombudsperson has informed.

Three supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS or ISIL), a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court, were killed, and two security officials were wounded in a counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in the village of Troitskoye, Sunzha District of Ingushetia. This was announced by the Russian National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC).

The whereabouts of Shamil Magomedov, the former head of the Untsukul District, cannot be established after unidentified persons took him away on August 22, his relatives report. According to their story, a search had been conducted in Magomedov's house a few days earlier.

The Ombudsperson of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is collecting complaints of human rights violations during the quarantine introduced due to coronavirus. The main complaints concern restrictions on travel, self-isolation conditions and delayed test results, Artak Beglaryan, the Ombudsperson, has stated.

The Chechen authorities are worried about the existence of such authoritative opponents as Anzor Maskhadov; therefore, he is in danger, human rights defenders assert. Maskhadov has preserved the archives of the President of Ichkeria*, his father, and is voicing out facts that are disadvantageous to the Chechen authorities, the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, has noted.

In Volgograd, activists have held solo pickets in support of Alexei Navalny, and protests in Khabarovsk and Belarus. The picketers reported that they were obsessively video filmed and provoked with insulting shouts by people who refused to introduce themselves.

Azad Gasanov, an activist of the "Musavat" Party, has complained that he could not go to Lithuania to his family because of the ban on leaving Azerbaijan. He has stated that there are no legal grounds for such a ban, since the term of his criminal sentence and the restrictions associated therewith had expired.

The Azerbaijani side has violated the ceasefire regime on the troops contact line for about 350 times, firing more than 3500 shots, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has reported today.