News

Three soldiers perished and four others were wounded in a fight on the border with Armenia, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced.

Residents of Vladikavkaz, who were denied a motor rally in support of Georgy Guev, a native of North Ossetia, accused of financing terrorism, made a photo with posters "I/We Guev Georgy".

Zaza Kakheladze, a Georgian citizen, opened fire at detention; this is the first such incident in 12 years, the KGB (Committee of State Security) of South Ossetia has stated. The Georgian party has condemned the actions of South-Ossetian law enforcers.

Azerbaijan has completed a preliminary inquiry into the criminal case opened against Afghan Sadygov, the head of the "Azel.tv" website. He has gone on a hunger strike, insisting on his innocence, his wife has stated.

The fathers of the young men, caught by Chechen law enforcers for violating traffic rules, have stated to the camera that they felt disgraced by the behaviour of their sons. Law enforcers should have not humiliated the fathers, Instagram users and local residents have noted.

It is recommended to invite minimum of guests to the wedding; while a wedding cortege should not consist of more than two cars, Salakh Mezhiev, the Mufti of Chechnya, has announced. His statement looks illogic amid the authorities' lift of ban on weddings, Instagram users believe.

During the last 24 hours, the positions of the Azerbaijani Army deployed in the Karabakh conflict zone and on the Armenian border were shelled for 49 times, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated today.

The authorities of Abkhazia have decided to open the border from July 13 to July 17, so that local residents could return home from Georgia. All the returnees have to undergo health control.

This summer, the tourist season in Chechnya has not been opened; only local residents spend their vacations in the republic's resorts, because under the coronavirus epidemic the borders of Chechnya are closed for foreign tourists, the resort workers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" assert.

The bosses of the Khasavyurt ambulance station refuse to pay surcharges to medics, taking advantage of the fact that due to lack of tests, not all the infected persons were diagnosed the coronavirus, health workers claim.

Owners of cafés and restaurants in Kalmykia are planning protest actions demanding to ease the restrictive measures in public catering and support the entrepreneurs who have to stay without incomes.

Raip Ashikov, a former head of Makhachkala police, accused of financing terrorism, went to court to demand compensation for the inhuman custody conditions. According to his story, when at the SIZO (pre-trial prison), he was infected with COVID-19 and failed to receive any treatment for more than 40 days.

With the restart of Friday prayers in the Makhachkala "Tangim" Mosque, law enforcers gathered near it and began stopping believers' cars of and copying drivers' and passengers' personal data.

The citizens of Azerbaijan, who have arrived from Dagestan to their homeland, are satisfied with the living conditions in the quarantine tent camp set up near the Samur border checkpoint. Until the end of quarantine, they are forbidden to contact their relatives, since COVID-19 is diagnosed in some of the arrivals.

The "Legal Initiative" will challenge the investigators' refusal to institute criminal proceedings against a clinic in Magas where a nine-year-old girl was subjected to female circumcision surgery. The investigators failed to carry out a thorough check into the activities of the clinic, human rights defenders claim.

In France, the police detained five more participants of clashes between members of the Chechen and Maghrib Diasporas in Dijon. Two detainees are charged with using violence.

A young man who introduced himself as a brother of Minkail Malizaev, a blogger living in Europe and criticizing the Chechen authorities, recorded a video message with apologizes for the blogger.

Despite the crisis in Azerbaijan and Armenia caused by the pandemic, there is still a threat of the resumption of large-scale hostilities in the Karabakh conflict zone. Meanwhile, the key factor of the possible escalation is not the intensity of the shelling attacks, but the lack of progress towards a political settlement. This opinion was voiced by Azerbaijani military analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

On July 9, Azerbaijani political émigrés held four protest actions in the German capital urging the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the US Embassy and the EU mission to introduce sanctions against Azerbaijani officials for harassing their political opponents.

On July 9, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) treated the assumptions that the leadership of Chechnya had to do with the murder of Mamikhan Umarov in Vienna as insinuations that impede an objective inquiry into the murder.