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The ex-candidate for Mayor of Astrakhan Oleg Shein has announced the conditions, under which he will quit his hunger strike: he will stop it immediately upon release of four protesters. Mr Shein has emphasized that the main reason to stop the hunger strike was the statement of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) about revealed violations during the election of the city Mayor.

In the city of Baksan, about a hundred people blocked a bridge on the federal highway. One of the protesters has explained that people were outraged with the fact that they could not get the body of the local resident, who was shot dead last night.

Today, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the oppositional coalition "Georgian Dream", has founded a new party – "Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia".

On April 20, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted amendments to the country's Electoral Code (EC).

The participants of the forum "Dagestan to Dagestani people" have proposed to set up a special call centre for victims of actions of power agents. The forum was attended by about 300 delegates, who represented public organizations from all over the country.

Experts of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) have noted violations of migrant workers' rights; these migrants are engaged in preparing Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. They also fixed violations related to alienation of land plots and resettlement for construction of Olympic objects and infrastructure, violations of the freedom of speech, and pressure on journalists and civil activists.

On April 19, the "Armavia" Airline completed a flight Yerevan-Milan-Yerevan, where 50 Italian tourists were the passengers.

In Azerbaijan, Oktai Gyulalyev, the coordinator of the headquarters of the civil organization "Kura", whose term of administrative arrest had completed, was charged of a crime. In particular, the civil organization activist is charged of "inciting to riots". The court decision left him under arrest again.

On April 18, Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, presented at the Council of Federation, a report on the results of 2011: the Ombudsman received 11.9 percent of the total number of complaints from the Southern Federal District (SFD), 5.5 percent from the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD). The greatest number of complaints from citizens of the Russian Federation was devoted to violations of civil rights and freedoms.

Criminal prosecution against representatives of the services of the "Domodedovo" Airport, which, according to the investigators' assumption, failed to take measures to prevent the terror act in January of 2011, was terminated. This was reported by Vladimir Markin, Spokesman of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

On April 19, in Sochi, in No. 26 in Constitution Street, near the Children's Centre, a picket in defence of the territory from the developers was held. The picketers demanded to stop the construction works.

Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), has reported that 60 percent of electoral precincts committed violations at the election of Mayor of Astrakhan. However, according to the CEC Chairman, all violations were of procedural nature and they did not affect the outcome. Oleg Shein, ex-candidate for the position of Mayor of the city saw, treated the statement made by Vladimir Churov as "a positive development."

In Dagestan, attempts of unlawful administrative pressure on the "Nastoyaschee Vremya" (Present Time) weekly newspaper bring into question the existence of freedom of speech and the policy of democratization in the republic. This was stated by Zagalav Somoev, the representative of the UN Human Rights Committee.

Today, members of the public campaign "Sing for Democracy", which is held to draw attention to the problems of human rights in Azerbaijan on the eve of the song contest "Eurovision-2012", has adopted a video message to the performers of the international contest.

Supporters of Oleg Shein, the member of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party, the ex-candidate for the position of Mayor of Astrakhan, were detained by police in Astrakhan, when they were trying to lay a wreath to the building of the regional state-owned TV and Radio Company.

In Yerevan, in Freedom Square, at 6:40 p.m. local time, the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) began a sanctioned rally. At present, the rally gathered several thousand people. Candidates for deputy from the ANC called on the audience to come to the parliamentary elections to be held on May 6.

At present, in Nalchik, people in masks carry out a search of the house belonging to Muradin Berov, who earlier reported that officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Kabardino-Balkaria beat his son. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" by Muradin Berov himself.

Two operative agents of Department of Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation (FDCS) in Rostov region are suspected of an attempt of fraud to a sum of 1,3 million rubles.

175 fires with four victims happened in the first quarter of 2012 in the territory of Chechen Republic.

A non-governmental movement "We do care!" held an action in Stachki prospect of Rostov-on-Don demanding construction of interchanges near the new bridge in Siversa prospect.