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The opening ceremony of the memorable sign in Moscow dedicated to the victims of the act of terror in Beslan, committed on September 1-3, 2004, is planned for June 1. The issues of its installation were discussed on May 12 at the working meeting of Alexander Totoonov, deputy chairman of the government of North Ossetia and republic's plenipotentiary at Russian President, with Zurab Tsereteli, President of the Russian Academy of Arts.

At the press conference held in Baku at the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) journalists and human rights activists Khyakimeldostu Mekhtiev and Elman Abbasov told about the bureaucrats' arbitrariness and total flouting of human rights reigning in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR). Earlier, Mekhtiev and Abbasov, being regional correspondents of the IRFS, for two years had been monitoring the situation with human rights in the NAR.

Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov has declared that the executors and organizers of the Moscow bombing were identified; some of them were already killed. In his turn, Medvedev stated that terrorists deserve no quarter.

Today, the South-Ossetian authorities, through intermediary of the European Council commissioner for human rights Thomas Hammarberg, have set free the three residents of Kaspsky area, Georgia.

Next abduction of a youth has happened in Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. Representative of one of the Chechen NGO has reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that this abduction took place at around 11am this morning in Mayakovsky small town.

The militia of Krasnodar failed to present the decision about termination of the criminal case against Ms Denisova, head of the Krasnodar human rights organization "ETnIKa", as the human rights activist asserts. She is going to demand apologies and damage compensation.

The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has opened criminal cases against directors of 12 schools of the Vedeno District. According to the investigation, last summer each of them appropriated, by forgery, 30,000 roubles. Defendants' colleagues speak about constant extortions and small salaries of teachers. Also, they are confused by the fact that all the 12 directors are suspected of simultaneous forgery and appropriation of the same sum. The investigation continues.

As reported by local law enforcement bodies of the republic, today in the morning, when a car with militiamen was blow up in the city of Baksan in Kabardino-Balkaria, a local resident was wounded and a militiaman was contused. Yesterday, on May 11, in the evening in city of Maiskiy a car exploded: a man was killed and another one was wounded.

Activists of the youth movement of Circassians "Adyge Khasse" express their readiness to hold a rally in the context of the unsolved murder of Aslan Zhukov. This was reported by Timur Zhuzhuev, chairman of the movement.

Former militiaman Alexei Dymovskiy has expressed his intention to organize an all-Russian rally on June 12 on the problem of malversations in law enforcement bodies and the judicial system.

The lawyers who represent the interests of the relatives of Levon Gulyan, who died three years ago at the police station, are going to lodge a complaint, after passage of all the domestic instances in Armenia, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). They promised it today at a press conference.

Today, in the city of Cherkessk, Fral Shebzukhov, adviser of the President of Karachai-Circassia was assassinated.

Moscow municipal court dismissed a cassation appeal of the advocates of former militiaman Sergey Khadzhykurbanov, who was declared not guilty in the journalist Anna Politkovskaya murder case but then sentenced to eight years in prison for extortion money from a key witness.

The European human rights court (EHRC) in Strasbourg has fined Russia to the sum of 225 000 euro for disappearance and death of habitants of Chechnya, the released court communique informs today. Relatives of the disappeared people repeatedly applied to the Russian judicial bodies but were not satisfied with their decisions. In the claimants' opinion, the local courts failed to investigate properly the circumstances of their relatives' disappearance.

Akhmed Rabadanov, habitant of the Village of Novy Kostek, who was killed on 26 March and who is considered the accomplice of the suicide bombers blown themselves up at Moscow metro stations on 29 March, had nothing to do with this crime, said one of Rabadanov's fellow-villagers to the Caucasus Knot correspondent on condition of strict anonymity.

The situation in Mursalli village and surrounding area (Azerbaijan), where in the evening on May 10 the Kura River washed off a dam, remains strained. Dashgyn Agaev, a resident of the village, said today in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that water continues to advance. The situation is also heavy in the Salyan District, where the water level would not go down. Deputies from the opposition accuse officials of having done nothing to prevent the tragedy.

On May 10, militiamen of the Kurganinsk District, Krasnodar Territory, made use of their service firearms to sooth down a group of young men. As a result of the incident two persons were wounded, one of them later died in hospital. According to preliminary data, earlier law enforcement bodies received information that a big group of youth was to rally in the place of incident for their showdowns.

The Prosecutor's Office of North Ossetia now checks the statements made by Ali-Hadji Evteev, Mufti of the republic, in his interview for the presence of extremism: he said that he approves the jihad, and that the ideologists of North-Caucasian separatists were his teachers.

Shota Utiashvili, head of the information-analytical service of the MIA of Georgia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the family of Malkhaz Gulashvili, founder of the radical "National Orthodox Movement" and the media holding "Georgian Times", was not persecuted by the police.

The South-Ossetian civil society is notable by its critical backwardness in development, dissociation and extreme form of opposition to the authorities. This is the opinion of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), working today in South Ossetia. In the opinion of Sarmat Parastaev, chairman of the citizens' forum of South Ossetia, in spite of it, "people still try to start dialogue with the authorities." President Eduard Kokoity also expresses his intention to hold open dialogue and discuss the problems of democracy development.